Great Wall of India
In June 3 this year, the Indian Solar Manufacturers Association (ISMA) appealed to the Directorate of Anti Dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD), Ministry of Commerce, to impose anti dumping duty on solar cells and modules from three countries: China, Malaysia and Taiwan. India has embarked on an ambitious programme of installing 100 GW solar capacity by 2022 and has so far got to around 12.5 GW but domestic solar manufacturers have little role in it. In 2016/17, only 11 per cent equipment that solar developers used came from local manufacturers, the rest being imported, over 80 per cent of it around 5.7 GW at a cost of around $3 billion from China alone.
Indian developers prefer Chinese solar cells because they are 35 per cent cheaper than the local variety; solar panels cost 10 15 per cent less. Chinese annual manufacturing capacity of solar equipment has trebled from 23 GW to 70 GW over the past four years. In comparison, in the same period, India's panel manufacturing capacity increased from 3 GW to 8 GW, while cell making capacity grew from 850 MW to 3 GW. Thanks to the Chinese flood, much of even this limited capacity lies unused. The ISMA wants the government to follow the example of the European Union and the US, both of which have imposed duties on Chinese solar products. "All we want is a level playing field," says Dhruv Sharma, CEO, Jupiter Solar, a leading manufacturer.
The government is yet to act on demands of solar manufacturers, but in several key sectors steel and pharmaceutical,
