In a setback to the Indian government’s bid to encourage domestic solar cell industry, solar power project developers have said that they would continue to import solar cells from different countries and would not source domestically, even if an anti-dumping duty on solar equipment is imposed.
In May, the Directorate General of Anti-Dumping recommended imposing high anti-dumping duty on solar imports coming from China, the US, Malaysia and Taiwan.
To circumvent this, manufactures say they will now import from countries that don’t attract the duty, such as Japan and South Korea, which manufacture “better quality solar cells” than Indian manufacturers.
“The power producers have conveyed that they have an option of buying solar cells from Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Canada, Germany, Italy and France, which cumulatively manufacture around 6,000-8,000 Mw a year. Indian manufacturers don’t have the capacity to meet the demand of the growing solar power production industry,” said a senior official with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).