India to Impose 40% Customs Duty on Imported Solar Modules

In order to promote as well as favour the Indian solar companies over their international competitors, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has decided to impose 40% customs duty on imported solar modules and 20% on solar cells. There are multiple solar modules currently being sold in India with different brand names. This declaration will definitely bring out a lot of scope for the Indian manufacturers and also encourage new companies to setup up their solar panel manufacturing in India. It will automatically make the imported solar modules costlier and encourage the Indian manufacturing.

According to the current trends, the solar panel market is completely dominated by the Chinese companies who supply 70 – 80 % of solar equipments to India. We cannot be completely relying on China for the solar equipments as this will not help us grow our economy and companies residing in India.

Solar cells are also called the photovoltaic cells which converts the energy of light into electrical energy through the photovoltaic effect. It is one of the most important components that is being used in the manufacturing of solar panels worldwide. They are basically categorized on the basis of technology, efficiency and warranty of the solar cells. The main raw material that is used in making solar cells is the silicon which is later on cut into silicon wafers. Currently, all the maximum distribution of solar cells is done by China.

At present, the solar sector in India is completely dependent on the imports from foreign countries for solar equipment’s. It has been witnessed that countries are dumping solar cells and panels in the Indian market to destroy the Indian manufacturers with their irrelevant pricing. After knowing the facts, Indian government has planned to support the local manufacturers with this idea of imposition of BCD (Basic Custom Duty) on imported solar modules and cells.

Well, completely imposing BCD in long run will affect the companies working in the large-scale projects who have already quoted for completing certain projects in an already set price. This step will not only stop anti-dumping of solar panels and cells from china but also encourage Indian and local manufacturing to grow.

Further, once the BCD is implied in India, we will be able to see more companies growing in India under the solar manufacturing sector. These continuous initiatives and policies that are being imposed will help the domestic solar manufacturing to grow. Also, it will bring in a lot of new job opportunities in the Indian solar market. The best solar company knows all the high efficiency solar panels.

The few Indian solar panel manufacturers are:

• Vikram Solar
• Renewsys
• Adani
• Waaree Energies

All these are one of the renowned Indian solar panel manufacturers who have a decent amount of market share in India. When we look at global players in the solar panel industry, there are multiple brands who are manufacturing in China and selling in India. Few of the leading Chinese solar panel suppliers here in India are Trina Solar, Jinko solar, JA Solar and Longi. They have been operating here in India for a long time, since the solar energy market started booming. The technology in these solar panels are up to date according to the market needs, but they are only killing the Indian market. There are multiple brands in the Indian market that are not that well recognised only because they are not able to compete with the low pricing which Chinese companies are expert in providing.

India, the leading country in adopting solar energy has planned to levy custom duties on solar modules and solar cells to remove its dependency on equipment’s manufactured in china and boost the local manufacturing. Also, according to sources India is allocating 2.62 billion dollars for the solar equipment manufacturing in India and plans to establish 280 GW of solar capacity by the year 2030. We have been witnessing Chinese companies to dominate the manufacturing industry worldwide with its cheap pricing and its anti-dumping policy where it sells at really low price to kill the competition in the market.

Once, we see the local manufacturing of solar equipments grow in India the industry will boom and this will result in a self-sustainable economy. After the Indian government and MNRE has planned to impose duties there are already many big names that have come up with idea of solar panels manufacturing in India. We can see a better and sustainable future after this decision is in action and Chinese companies are not able to dump their products and spoil the Indian market.