Badly hit by a shrinking market and idle capacity, local manufacturers of solar cells and modules have decided to approach the government again seeking to impose a ‘safeguard duty’ on imported equipment.
They had petitioned the Ministry of Trade and Commerce in early June seeking an anti-dumping duty on solar imports but have not received any response so far. They now plan to petition the Director General of Safeguards in the same ministry to impose a duty of 10 US cents (Rs 6.50) per watt on imported cells and modules.
Solar manufacturers are getting desperate as they say they have been marginalized in the country’s ambitious solar energy programme. In 2016-17, as much as 5,525 MW of solar projects were set up in country, but about 90 percent of the solar cells and modules used were imported, mainly from China, Malaysia and Taiwan.
Thanks to the scale of the manufacturing units in those countries and supportive government policies there, they can provide solar cells and modules at prices 10-20 percent cheaper than their Indian counterparts. India’s imports of solar cells and modules rose 36 percent in 2016-17 to $3.2 billion.
Total domestic module manufacturing capacity is 8,113 MW of which 5,286 MW are operational. But actual manufacturing in 2016-17 was 1,000-1,500 MW, due to lack of demand.
Imposing anti-dumping, or safeguard, duty on imports will raise the cost of solar installations and thereby increase tariffs. Solar tariffs have been falling steeply in the past two years, and protective steps may reverse the trend. But, local manufactures see the impact to be limited.
By Baishakhi Dutta
