Govt plans import tariffs on green equipment to boost local industry

The Union government may raise taxes on imports of green energy equipment in an offer to support their local manufacturing and protect domestic companies from less expensive imports, as per Mr Anand Kumar, secretary in the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE)

The fast-growing domestic market for solar components is commanded by Chinese companies because of their focused pricing. The surge in imports drove the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in its past term to impose a safeguard obligation from 30 July 2018 on solar cells and modules imported from China and Malaysia.

India is also putting the final shape on plan to assemble Tesla-style giga production lines to make batteries that includes raft of incentives, for example, concessional financing option, friendly tax regimes and an appropriate basic custom obligation safeguard.

This comes when India's rising green economy is relied upon to require investment of around US$ 80 billion till 2022, developing more than triple to US$ 250 billion during 2023-30. India has turned out to be one of the top renewable producers globally with ambitious capacity expansion plans.

India currently has a domestic producing capacity of 3 gigawatts (GW) for solar cells and that of around 10GW for wind power equipment.

The Union budget in July also declared tax reductions for setting up mega-manufacturing plants for solar photovoltaic cells, lithium storage batteries and solar electric charging infrastructure.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.