Policy·1 Feb 2025·1 min read

Budget 2025: customs duty exemption on lithium-ion battery scrap

A small line in the budget with big implications for battery recycling economics in India.

#Budget 2025#battery scrap#customs duty#recycling

This is an independent summary of reporting by Times of India. Facts and figures are attributed to the original article; analysis is ours. We do not reproduce full articles — read the original for full detail.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a customs duty exemption on lithium-ion battery scrap in Union Budget 2025 — a targeted move to lower feedstock costs for India's battery recycling and manufacturing industry.

What changed

Lithium-ion battery scrap becomes duty-free on import
Intended to reduce costs for recyclers and encourage domestic battery production
Stocks of battery makers (Exide, Amara Raja) rose on the announcement

Why scrap imports matter

India's domestic battery waste stream is still too small to feed the recycling industry at scale. Importing Li-ion scrap — mostly from end-of-life devices and battery packs — fills the gap until India's own EV and electronics waste volumes mature.

The full policy picture

The duty exemption sits inside a larger battery strategy:

PM E-DRIVE — demand subsidies for EVs (demand side)
Critical Mineral Recycling incentive (₹1,500 Cr, Sep 2025) — capex/opex subsidies for recyclers (supply side)
Customs duty exemption on scrap — cheaper feedstock (input side)

Policy is building the recycling loop from three angles at once — the battery circular economy is being assembled deliberately.

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