Duty on imported solar gear to attract foreign investment:ISMA

Indian Solar Manufacturers Association has said the imposition of Anti-Dumping Duty on imported equipment, mainly from China and Taiwan, will attract global investment in the solar gear manufacturing market in the country.
"With the imposition of Anti-Dumping Duty, we will attract immediate FDI in solar manufacturing and we estimate the domestic manufacturing capacity to increase to 4-5 GW (4,000-5,000 MW). This will create an indigenous solar supply chain that will be very competitive and vital for India," Hulas Rahul Gupta, senior member, Indian Solar Manufacturers Association (ISMA) told PTI.
He said instead of employment generation, 20,000 Indian skilled workers have suffered loss of employment due to dumping.

Dumping has caused a massive structural supply overhang of cells and modules since 2011, to the detriment of Indian industry, ISMA said in a letter to the Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal.
The damage has been caused due to massive investments in manufacturing capacities in China and Taiwan as 80 per cent of the production is concentrated in these two countries. Due to the supply overhang, the Chinese and Taiwanese manufacturers have dumped their products in the international markets at prices below the cost of operations, ISMA said.
The Commerce Ministry has recommended levying anti- dumping duty on solar cells imported from the US, Malaysia, China and Chinese Taipei, in the range of USD 0.11 to 0.81 per watt.

The US and Europe have both imposed steep Anti-Dumping Duties on China in 2012 and 2013.

India imported Rs 4,100 crore of cells and panels in 2013. If this import trend is not averted - forex outgo will be an un-sustainable Rs 82,000 crore to import 20 GW of cells and modules by 2022 for Nehru Solar Mission, ISMA said in the letter.
"The local manufacturing base of 1 GW cells and 2 GW panels have deployed Rs 10,000 crores in investment, and unless supported by Antidumping duty, the debts will turn into NPA and stress the PSU banks balance sheet impacting the sovereign credit rating of India," Gupta said.

The industry body is of the view that there will be a big boost to high quality employment if the solar manufacturing base is allowed to prosper.