Wednesday, June 25, 2014: The country isn’t financially strong enough to make cheaper solar equipment in large amount. Hence, the power ministry is concerned about charging anti-dumping duty on imported solar gears in India.
Piyush Goyal, power minister of the country said, “India’s solar industry doesn’t have enough capital to support the amount of manufacturing we are expecting from it. Hence, we have requested Commerce and Finance ministries to review the proposal of imposing anti dumping duty on solar equipment. We expect to grow solar industry in India in the future. So, this is going to be short term view.”
Last month, the Commerce Ministry recommended levying anti-dumping duty on solar cells from the US, Malaysia, China and Chinese Taipei. A final stand on slapping the levy to discourage imports is to be taken by the Finance Ministry.
Many solar equipment such as solar cell are imported in India from countries like USA, Malaysia, China, Japan. Commerce ministry proposed to charge anti-dumping duty on imported solar cells last month. The final decision from the Finance Ministry is awaited.
India is hoping to grow rapidly in solar energy domain by 2022. India is expecting to grow up to 20,000 MW grid connected solar capacity. The current installed solar capacity is 2600 MW. Commerce Ministry has suggested anti dumping duty of $0.11 to 0.81 per watt. This is to protect domestic manufacturers and their market share.