Monday, May 26, 2014: The DGAD has recommended anti-dumping duties of up to $0.48 per watt on solar cells coming from the US and $0.81 per watt from China.
The Directorate General of Anti-Dumping (DGAD) has decided that India will impose dumping duty on international solar panels imported from the US, China, Malaysia and Taiwan, much to the ire of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and several State Governments. The decision however is a welcome one for Indian solar panel manufacturers who had earlier filed a petition for imposing anti-dumping duties on imports from China, Taipei, Malaysia and the US.
The DGAD, in its final findings, has recommended anti-dumping duties of up to $0.48 per watt on solar cells coming from the US and $0.81 per watt from China. Meanwhile, it recommends duties of up to $0.62 per watt and $0.59 per watt from Malaysia and Taiwan, respectively. “After examining the issues raised and submissions made by the interested parties and facts made available before the authority, the product under consideration has been exported to India from subject countries below its normal value, thus resulting in dumping of the product,” a DGAD notification in the case filed by a group of domestic manufacturers two years back said.
Domestic manufacturers claim they are bearing the brunt, losing out on business to the tune of Rs 10,000 million as more and more project developers prefer buying international panels at lower costs rather than going for in-house products. Project developers on the other hand argue that Indian panel makers lack sufficient manufacturing capacity and lack good quality standards. In rebuttal, Indian manufacturers say their panels do qualify quality norms and that they also possess sufficient capacity to supply for projects.
It must be noted that over 70 per cent of the solar power projects in India are built on content imported mostly from China. Therefore imposing duties on import of solar cells will result in prices of equipment to go up, the result being a negative effect on achieving grid parity in the country, the MNRE contends.
