Tension among major domestic solar manufacturers have built up as they are unsure about the future of their investments in special economic zones after the implementation of solar safeguard duty.
There is no clarity on whether the solar safeguard duty imposed on imported solar units and modules will also apply to solar manufacturing plants in special economic zones (SEZ), which accounts 70 per cent of domestic capacity. As per report by TNN, this unsurety have got the major domestic players worried about the future of their investment in such units.
The SEZ units use imported components for solar manufacturing, the companies say that the ambiguity in the notification could affect their investments and lot of people could lose their jobs.
The Adani Group, Websol Energy, Vikram Solar, and Renewsys are among the major companies who have set up solar manufacturing facilities in SEZs. The manufacturers are now asking for clarification from Finance Ministry that whether the SGD will apply only on the value of imported cells used by SEZ units to manufacture modules that are then supplied to DTA.
Moreover, the manufacturers are also requesting the ministry to clarify that SGD will not apply to solar modules manufactured and supplied to DTA by using imported wafers or other raw materials that are not within the scope of the DGTR’s anti-dumping probe.