The government has received expressions of interest to set up manufacturing capacity of nearly 35,000 MW of solar equipment, union power and renewable energy minister RK Singh recently told media.
Domestic Solar equipment manufacturers have been anticipating the duty on solar equipment since FM Nirmala Sitharaman included it in her union budget proposal earlier this year.
RK Singh had told reporters in June that such a basics custom duty was supposed to be imposed from August 1 to prevent the dumping of Chinese goods and protect national interests, where 80% of solar equipment is sourced from.
However, due to disagreements over the “grandfathering” clause which would provide exemptions to power purchase agreements already signed, the implementation remained delayed.
Adding a “grandfather clause” to existing power purchase agreements would mean that there is an understanding between solar developers and the government that the project costs more than the allocated budget at the time of closing of the deal, and hence, compensation will be provided to the developers via the distribution companies.
Although this is expected to provide relief to the generators, consumers might bear the immediate brunt of such a policy.
This is a Syndicate News Feed; edited by Clean-Future Team