Delay within the introduction of BCD on solar techniques affecting investments: CII – Saurenergy

CII has urged the Treasury Department to enforce the BCD for solar systems, stressing that the delay in implementation is affecting investments.

The Confederation of Indian Industry ((CII) requested the Ministry to do so in a written memorandum to the Ministry of Finance impose the planned basic duty (BCD) on Solar systems As announced in the last general budget, it is stressed that the delay in implementation has an impact on investments.

The memorandum states that the implementation of BCD for solar systems was announced in the last Union budget, but the government does not yet have to draw up a roadmap for implementation. Another indication that the delay in the BCD levy is affecting the industry's investment decisions.

The CII also urged the ministry to bring power within the GST (Goods and Services Tax) scope, saying that its recommendations before the budget had called for this for several years. It is proposed to bring the electrical energy into the GST network with a lower GST rate or to exclude it from the GST. The generation / transmission / distribution company should be given a refund of the entry credit, he added. This is still pending a decision by the Indian government.

In addition, the CII representatives emphasized that the decision on the 2016 tariff policy and the draft law on the amendment of electricity (EAB) 2020 are still pending during a planned pre-budget meeting with representatives of the Ministry of Finance.

They stressed that tariff policy is an important policy for more competition, especially in the distribution sector. The EAB 2020 was also hailed by the industry as an important step towards increasing efficiency in generation, distribution, transmission and alternative procurement such as short-term market, open access, etc. Both are important policies and still need to be implemented by the government, it said.

About enforcing the must-run status of extendable In energy power plants (RE), the problem of artificial restriction is a cause for concern for producers of renewable energies, especially in countries that are rich in renewable energies.

“SLDCs (State Load Dispatch Centers) have violated the“ must-run ”status of RE systems and have restricted RE generation despite sufficient network availability. Discoms or SLDCs / RLDCs (regional load dispatch centers) enable preferred power outflow from power plants by delaying the withdrawal of power from other stations. Therefore, in some states the implementation of must-runs in true letter and spirit has not yet been seen, ”she emphasized.

Regarding the enforcement of the letter of credit (LC) and the payment security for renewable and conventional power plants, it was stated that the discom fees will be 1.26,000 rupees as of September 2020. There were already old payment problems that accumulated when the energy sector got into turmoil mid-year as the country faced the pandemic that hit demand badly.

While hiring an LC was one of the very progressive moves by the Indian government announced at a CEOs Dialog in 2019, there are implementation issues in states that require guidance and intervention, it said.

In October, RK Singh, Minister for New and Renewable Energy, had said that India will soon tighten regulations for Imports of solar systems to encourage more domestic production, even if the demand for electricity has increased again after the Covid outbreak.

At a conference titled India PV Edge 2020, the minister said the government was not only planning to introduce a basic tariff, but was also putting in place a list of approved suppliers and manufacturers to ensure domestic manufacturers were not harmed. We build barriers. One of the reasons is dumping, which has taken place in some countries at very low prices. We will introduce customs duties. We will also have an approved list of vendors and manufacturers. "