Livemint reports that India plans to impose tariffs on imports of lithium-ion cells for as long as a decade and to offer incentives to boost local manufacturing as part of a broader effort to scale down trade ties with China.

Tensions along the India-China border have prompted India to use its fast-growing market as a lever to pressure Beijing to back off. India’s plans involve imposing tariff and non-tariff barriers to check Chinese imports. The idea is to avoid repeating what happened with solar equipment manufacturing, where China leveraged its first-mover advantage to capture the market.

… “The Indian government has taken note of China’s dominance in this space and there are geopolitical reasons as well behind devising such an incentive scheme for lithium cells," said one of the people cited above requesting anonymity. The government plans to offer incentives such as 100% tax deduction of capital expenditure in the first year of operation under Section 35 AD, concessional financing options by giving companies deemed infrastructure status and waiver of minimum alternative tax.