India Raises Tariffs on Photovoltaic Products

Nirmala Sitharaman, India 's co-finance minister, said : ' Over the past six years there have been some reforms and achievements in the power sector. We added 139 GW installed capacity, connected 280 million households and increased 141,000 kilometres of loop transmission lines.  '

Minister Sitharaman also referred to DISCOMs. ' There is a need to give consumers choices by promoting competition, ' he said. The government will develop a framework for consumers to choose in more than one distribution company.  Because, whether government or private want to become a monopoly.

Minister Sitharaman said the government was planning to raise tariffs on photovoltaic inverters from 5 % to 20 % and on solar lights from 5 % to 15 % to stimulate domestic production. The government also proposed to reduce the tariff on semi-steel products to 7.5 % to cope with the sharp rise in steel prices. In addition, the tariff on lithium-ion batteries is also increased from 0 to 3 %.

The Indian government also said it would cancel the tariff-free policy of machines, instruments, appliances, components and auxiliary equipment for the construction of solar power projects.