Power and New & Renewable Minister R K Singh said on Thursday said his ministry has proposed basic custom duty (BCD) on solar equipment in the range of 15 to 25 per cent in first year which would eventually increase up to 40 per cent.
Power and New & Renewable Minister R K Singh said on Thursday said his ministry has proposed basic custom duty (BCD) on solar equipment in the range of 15 to 25 per cent in first year which would eventually increase up to 40 per cent. On Tuesday, Singh had told industry representative about the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) proposal to impose BCD on solar cells, modules and invertors from August this year in a virtual conference.
Singh on Thursday in a virtual press conference told reporters :”The ministry has proposed to impose 20 to 25 per cent BCD on solar modules which would be raised up to 40 per cent subsequently in second year.” The minister further said “the ministry has proposed 10 to 15 per cent BCD on solar cells in first year which would be raised up to 40 per cent subsequently in second year onwards.” Currently, there is no BCD on solar equipment. However, a 15 per cent safeguard duty (SGD) is applicable on solar cells that would be zero or nil from July 30, 2020.
In July 2018, India imposed SGD on solar cells imports from China and Malaysia for two years to protect domestic players from steep rise in the inbound shipments of the products. The government had imposed a 25 per cent SGD for July 30 2018, to July 29, 2019, which gradually came down to 20 per cent during July 30, 2019, to January 29, 2020, and 15 per cent during January 30, 2020 to July 29, 2020.
The minister in the conference also attacked the various lobbies for resisting power sector reforms like revised power tariff policy and recently circulated draft Electricity Amendment Bill 2020. He said that some people are spreading canards which have no basis.
On the Rs 90,000 crore liquidity package for discoms announced last month by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman, the minister said that various states have evinced interest for seeking Rs 93,000 crore loan for their discoms under the package. About the privatisation of discoms in the union territories, he told that the plan is under implementation.
About consequences for the thermal plant not meeting the deadline for installing emission equipments, the minister said that they would have to shut their plants (as per the law). He also said that government would keep checks on malware on imported power generation equipment.
Source: PTI
