India has ushered in a prosperous era of Amrit Kaal, signalling unprecedented growth for every Indian. As we progress to becoming a $5 trillion economy, each step counts. The upcoming budget 2023 aims to lay down a progressive roadmap towards India becoming a developed economy by 2047. Aluminium will play a significant role in this effort with an extensive role in the success of the national vision on Net Zero emissions, renewable energy, sustainable infra, last-mile road & rail connectivity and encouraging the sunrise sectors of renewable energy & electric vehicles.
To achieve this, it is crucial that the bottlenecks of the domestic aluminium industry are addressed by correcting the excessive duties & inverted structure on critical raw materials such as Calcined Petroleum Coke, Calcined Alumina and Caustic Soda Lye. The current high duty structure of 7.5% - 10% on these essential raw materials is an investment deterrent & needs to be rationalized to at least 2.5%, if not removed completely.
Similarly, even with the availability of sufficient capacities for the production of high-quality aluminium domestically, the dumping of low-quality imported scrap has restricted the development of the domestic scrap landscape. Imposing necessary quality standards & a duty of at least 10% on the import of aluminium scrap is necessary to prevent dumping of sub-standard foreign scrap in the country.
The domestic aluminium industry, as an anchor industry for several downstream industries, holds special potential. Aluminium demand in India is expected to double from today’s 4 MTPA to 10 MTPA by 2030. Domestic producers stand ready to cater to this rise with a planned outlay of over 4 lakh crores, creating 30 lakh additional jobs. Promoting domestic manufacturing will build India’s expertise in making world-class products. The upcoming Budget 2023 represents an opportunity to proactively address the aluminium industry’s concerns and accelerate our transformation into a truly Aatmanirbhar Bharat.
