Govt of India had set an ambitious target of installing 175 GW of Renewable Energy capacity by 2022 which has been increased to 450 GW by 2030, as committed by the Prime Minister in UN Climate Action summit.
It is a marathon target and total investment required to achieve the initial target of 175 GW only has been estimated at over $150-200 billion.
Keeping the above thought process in mind we talked to industry players who will be instrumental in making this a reality and sort their opinion on “Budget 2021” for their sector.
Mr.Puneet Goel C.E.O, Atria Power Corporation, opinions that Finance Minister has announced many direct and indirect initiatives, which will provide significant growth impetus to renewable energy sector in the long term. To support his point of view he made following submissions –
- To support Make in India and domestic manufacturing – government to notify phased manufacturing plan for solar equipment’s;
- budget head created for manufacturing zones for power and RE;
- duty on solar inverters and lanterns increased from 5% each to 20% and 15% respectively, exemptions on import of all items of solar machinery and equipment is being rescinded.
- Allowing of multiple distribution companies will have a significant potential for expansion and market creation in RE power generation, supply and distribution
Chandan Mundhra, Founder & C.E.O –Savë Electric Vehicles says, “Overall, the budget 2021 is growth-oriented with strong focus on building infrastructure. I believe, boost to infra will directly or indirectly impact all sectors positively in long run.”
With regard to EV industry, there was no specific allocation but we hope the scrappage policy will boost EV adoption to some extent, as many new buyers will switch to electric vehicles after scrapping their older vehicles.
One more issue we were expecting to be addressed in Budget 2021 was the inverted duty structure in GST for our industry. Input tax on almost 90% of our components(raw materials) is 28% where as the final product (EVs) sells at 5% leading to a substantial amount of working capital blockage with no return and leads to cascading cost. Hope it comes to the notice of policy makers and gets addresses timely, adds Mr. Mundhra.
“FM has taken a very bold and calculated strategic decision while framing budget 2021 as she resorted to deficit funding and ensured the much-needed navigation in the direction of growth”says, Priyanka, M.D, e-KORS.
“Budget 2021 is focusing on the Atmanirbhar Bharat which signifies the growing importance of startups. Rationalization of duties on import of duty-free items and relief to copper recycling firms via duty reduction on copper scrap etc. are also incentives to promote the domestic manufacturing industry and ensuring import substitution. Hope it will pave the way for the growth of employment and development of MSMEs in India,” she adds.
After hearing from “horse’s mouth” 😉 I feel budget 2021 will provide a strong impetus for the all-round growth of the RE sector in line with the Prime Minister’s vision of a self-reliant India.
This, in-turn, will help the RE industry provide affordable, quality green powers to the masses and to the industry and contribute towards speedy growth of the economy of the country in coming years.
This feature story is a Clean-Future Exclusive.
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