Even as the domestic solar equipment manufacturers have been consistently raising the pitch for the imposition of anti-dumping duty on imported solar equipments, Power Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday side-stepped the issue when asked about his stand on it.
He instead put the ball in the Commerce Ministry’s court, saying it was beyond his jurisdiction to take a call on the matter. “I am the Minister for Renewable Energy (the portfolio which holds apart from Power and Coal). I am focusing in my mission and vision. The subject of anti-dumping relates to other ministry (Commerce), which will take an appropriate call as and when it is required,” he told reporters after meeting a delegation of solar power equipment makers and developers who are demanding imposition of anti-dumping duty on solar equipment imports.
To protect the struggling domestic industry, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in May had recommended imposing a restrictive duty in the range of $0.11-0.81 per watt on solar cells imported from the US, China, Malaysia and Chinese Taipei.
While the Designated Authority in the Department of Commerce recommends the anti dumping duty, provisional or final, it is the Ministry of Finance which acts upon such recommendation within three months and imposes levies.
Goyal in the past had said that domestic solar power equipment manufacturing capacity of 700-800 mw is not sufficient to meet the Government’s ambitious plans of adding more power generation capacity through renewable energy sources.
Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari had written to Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman opposing plans to levy of anti-dumping duty, saying this would escalate the cost of solar power in the country.
Meanwhile, Power Secretary P K Sinha said, “solar power should contribute to supplying electricity to the transmission grid. For that the government should give incentives to the developers.”