Comments
Solar power developers may now have to pay 25 per cent safeguard duty on around 1,000 MW of solar modules imported from July 30. On Monday, the Supreme Court vacated the Orissa High Court’s interim stay on the duty imposed by the Centre.
“Following the Supreme Court’s interim order nullifying the relief from the duty provided by Orissa High Court, the developers now will have to pay for modules that have been imported during the past one and a half months as the duty will be levied retrospectively,” an industry source told BusinessLine . He added that while the next hearing on the matter is scheduled for October, the interim order pronounced by the Supreme Court allows the government to levy the duty with effect from July 30, while the deliberations on the case will continue.
The safeguard duty was notified on July 30 but was put on hold by the Finance Ministry as the notification happened despite the stay by the Orissa High Court. The Ministry had then moved the apex court to seek relief from the order.
Solar modules of up to 1,000 MW capacity have been imported July 30, according to industry players, at an average rate of $0.28. They estimate the safeguard duty implication to be in the range of ₹500 crore.
Developers now hope that the additional costs would be passed through to distribution companies (Discoms) as per Ministry of Power’s notification to the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission ( last month to expedite the pass-through option available for projects under development before the duty was notified. “The pass-through option would be applicable from the date of submission of the bid till the date of invoice for the module. The developers would need to file the petition to show they have been affected by change in law,” an industry player quoted above told BusinessLine .
The Finance Ministry announced the safeguard duty on imports from China and Malaysia based on the final recommendations proposed by the Directorate-General of Trade Remedies.
The duty of 25 per cent would be levied for a period of one year, followed by 20 per cent for the next six months and 15 per cent for six more months.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.