A number of flagship programs of Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) such as KUSUM, have provisions for mandatory use of domestically manufactured solar PV cells.
However it was seen that some manufacturers have been importing semi –processed solar PV cells (generally called blue wafer) and making final Solar PV cells with little value addition in India.
The Ministry has clarified that if diffused silicon wafer (generally called ‘Blue Wafer’) is imported and the same is used as raw material for the manufacture of solar PV cells in India, such solar PV cells shall not qualify as domestically manufactured solar PV cells, for the purpose of MNRE’s Schemes / Programs.
A solar PV cell shall be considered to be domestically manufactured only if the same has been manufactured in India, using undiffused silicon wafer (generally called ‘Black Wafer’), classifiable under Customs Tariff Head 3818 and all steps / processes required for manufacturing solar PV cell from the undiffused silicon wafer have been carried out in India.
It is expected that this decision will help in establishing a strong solar manufacturing base in India.
This is a PIB News-Feed; edited by Clean-Future Team