Thursday, June 12, 2014: The Directorate General of Anti-Dumping (DGAD) has recommended to the Finance Ministry that India should impose dumping duty on international solar panels imported from the US, China, Malaysia and Taiwan and awaits an approval for the same. Meanwhile, Tata Power Solar insists that the Finance Ministry should step up and approve the same as soon as possible since India?s domestic solar manufacturing sector will collapse by the end of the year without anti-dumping duties.
“The reality is that in the last three years there has been so much overcapacity and so much dumping that if we do not take dramatic action now, then within six months the Indian manufacturing industry will be dead. They are already in fairly bad shape. People have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in equipment and facilities and that are now just sitting idle. It’s a shame.” Ajay K Goel, CEO of Tata Power Solar was quoted by PV Tech as saying. 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. The finance ministry has a 22 August deadline to decide whether or not to impose them.
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. “(Anti-) dumping is a short-term solution. The government has to provide a level playing field and allow the Indian manufacturers to grow. Anti-dumping (measures are) a means to an end, after a while once the industry gets on its own two feet and reaches a certain scale, then those duties can be scaled back.” Goel added.
