Year 2017 witnessed various developments in the renewable energy sector in terms of growth, which was fueled by policies, reforms and investments given that it is one of the focal areas. The continued government support and improved economics attracted more investments in the developmental growth of the sector.
However, after a period of sustained growth India has been missing yearly renewable expansion targets due to a number of causes, among which the implementation of the GST has been one. A new import duty on solar modules from China, Taiwan and Malaysia threatens to increase production costs and record low solar tariffs; Addressing these issues are important if India is to fulfill its commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement 2015 to install 175 GW of renewables capacity by 2022.
In the upcoming budget, the government should allocate higher budgets for rural electrification and energy efficiency driven projects. The government should also incentivize more and offer capital and interest subsidies, concessional finance, fiscal incentives etc. to achieve the objective of the national solar mission to reduce the cost of solar power generation in the country and build a clean energy future for the ‘New India’.
Yogesh Mundra sharing his expectations from the upcoming Union Budget 2018