India should put in place immediately a basic customs duty (BCD) of at least 50% on solar equipment to safeguard the future of local manufacturers, the chairman of trade body All India Solar Industries Association (AISIA) said.
A strong rebound of utility-scale solar installations in India is not expected until 2021, with just 2.5GW expected to be deployed in the second half of this year, research from JMK Research & Analytics has found.
Azure Power’s project commissioning activity ground to a halt in the three months ended 30 June 2020, as the impacts of COVID-19 were felt strongly in India.
India installed just 205MW of solar capacity in the second quarter of 2020, down 86% year-on-year, according to a new report from research and consulting firm Mercom India Research.
Azure Power and Tata Power were among winners in a reverse auction for 1.2GW of solar projects in India, with a winning tariff of INR2.43/kWh (US$0.0324).
Azure Power has seen its pipeline of interstate transmission solar in India swell by another 2GW after a greenshoe option in an existing contract with Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) was exercised.
The threat of a double taxation of solar in India via both safeguard and basic custom duties could squeeze developers and result in large numbers of project cancellations, consultancy Fitch Solutions has warned.
