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Bloomberg
India’s finance ministry said a 25 percent safeguard duty on solar cells and modules imported from China and Malaysia has been imposed, providing some clarity on the protectionist move that had been caught up in court battles.
The tariff will be imposed in accordance with a notification originally published on July 30, the finance ministry said.
The development follows a decision earlier this week by India’s Supreme Court that overturned a lower court stay on the tariff.
“Developers as well as auctioning authorities can now proceed with their planned projects,†said Allen Tom Abraham, a New Delhi-based Bloomberg NEF analyst.
The safeguard duty may threaten Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious plan of installing 175 gigawatts of renewable capacity by 2022.
While cheap imports helped efforts to reach that goal, domestic solar power equipment companies complained they were being undercut.
The decision to impose safeguard duty will have ramifications on Indian solar developers in the short-term as it affects their project schedules, Yin Rongfang, president of global sales at Trina Solar Ltd., the world’s second-largest maker of solar cells, said.