The Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) wants to impose duty for two years on imported solar cells and modules from China and Malaysia. DGTR believes that this will help in India’s plans on solar power generation.
DGTR has recommended to impose 25% duty for the first year and 5% reduction for the first six months of the second year. 15% duty is recommended for the last six months of the second year.
“The domestic industry has suffered serious injury, considering overall performance, on the basis of listed economic parameters such as market share and profitability, which have sharply declined over the injury period 2014-2015 to 2017-2018 (annualized), whereas market share of imports have increased during the same period,” DGTR said in its report.
India aims to achieve 100 GW of solar capacity by 2022 and majority of the Indian developers rely on Chinese manufacturers because of the lesser pricing.
“The decision is largely in line with expectations but still very damaging to the industry as well as to the government’s ambitious plans. I feel that the arguments used to justify duty imposition are highly flawed and if the government accepts the recommendations, it would face the risk of an appeal by other countries. Also, the decision to impose duties for just two years is bizarre as such a short period will not encourage any new investment and nor allow existing manufacturers to make any meaningful recovery”, said Vinay Rustagi, managing director of Bridge To India.
