India to impose import duty on solar cells, modules from Malaysia and China

NEW DELHI: India will impose a 25% duty on imports of solar cells and modules from Malaysia and China, a move the government says is designed to protect domestic manufacturers.
India's Directorate General of Trade Remedies, which is part of the Ministry of Commerce, recommended the duty to be imposed for two years.
"The request made by the domestic industry for imposition of provisional safeguard duty was examined and, prima facie, found that there existed critical circumstances which warranted imposition of provisional safeguard duty in order to provide interim relief to the domestic industry from suffering irreparable damage, which could have been difficult to repair," it said in a report.
Levying the new import tax is likely to escalate the cost of producing solar energy in India, which aims to have a capacity 100-gigawatt solar power by 2022.
Cheaper imports have boosted solar projects in the country, but domestic manufacturers have complained that they are losing sales and cannot invest in raising output despite growing demand for solar cells and modules.
The directorate general's report noted that the market share of the domestic industry declined from 8% to 3% in the last few years.
The 25% will be imposed in the first year, 20% in the following six months and 15% for another six months. – Bernama