Energetica India Magazine January-February 2021

For the Covid-hit Indian economy, which is slowly on a recovery path, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman promised for a ‘bud- get like never before’. This year the Union Budget 2021, slated to be tabled in Parliament on February 1, is expected to be an ‘extra-ordinary budget’ in ‘extra-ordinary times’, wherein there’s a pressure of boosting the economic activity, job creation, high- er income generation, boosting investment etc despite higher government expenditure on Covid related activities. In the economic growth of any country power sector plays a vital role, and is, therefore, considered as the backbone of the industrial and agricultural growth. Amidst the ongoing corona virus pandemic, voices have been raised globally for increasing shift towards green energy. In 2020, the world committed a record USD 501.3 billion to de- carbonisation, beating 2019 by 9 per cent despite the economic disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, said the energy transition investment analysis conducted by BloombergNEF. However, India slipped 36 per cent to USD 6.2 billion in renew- able energy capacity investment. The data clearly hinted towards the severe downfall in the re- newable energy capacity investment activity since the spread of corona virus in the country. This is significant as Indian government has set ambitious target of 175 GW of renewable energy, including 100 GW from solar energy and out of this 40 GW from rooftop solar, by 2022. Al- though, government has taken several steps in order to provide support for the power and renewable energy sector amidst the pandemic, including promoting domestic manufacturing through ‘vocal for local’, AatmNirbhar Bharat initiatives etc. Now, ahead of the FM Sitharaman’s Budget, which is going to be completely paperless for the first time since independence due to ongoing pandemic, power sector especially renewable en- ergy stakeholders’ eye more relief for ‘Ease of doing Business’. The wish list which we gathered from the power industry stakeholders include – investment for power transmission & distribution infrastructure, renewable energy, DISCOMs distress, financing for rooftop solar, clarity on tariffs, basic custom duty, PLI Scheme, export incentives among others. Budget 2021: What Renewable Energy Industry Seek from Fin nce Minist r BUDGET Taking a cue from the FMSitharaman’s ‘once-in-a-100-years’ budget promise, Vijay Chhibber, Director General of Electric Power Transmission Asso- ciation (EPTA) , talking to Energetica India, said “Budget 2021 is obviously expected to be a landmark budget, given theacute fiscal stress onaccount of COVID related expenditure on the one hand and the need for reviving growth through higher spend and capital investments in infrastructure under the framework of theNational In- frastructure Pipeline. I am sure that the Government will look at all measures to identify new sources of revenue. In addition to disinvestments including privatization of DISCOMs, monetiz- ing infrastructure assets including Transmission assets should be a focus area. The TOT model can help raise substantial resources which can be ploughed in for creation of new infrastructure assets. The current fiscal stress provides government with an opportunity to restructure priorities by pro- viding greater “space” for private investments in infrastructure development generally, and Transmission in particular. Thiswill free-up avail- able public resources to be deployed for meet- ing the unavoidable and increasing demands in the Health, Education and Defence sectors.” While making a strong case for financing for rooftop solar, Yuvaraj DineshBabuNithyanan- dam, Executive Director and TeamLeader at Sustainable Partnership for Rooftop Solar Acceleration in Bharat (SU- PRABHA-The World Bank SBI Ini- tiative) , shared with Energetica India, that “Indian Rooftop Solar Industry is looking forward to a harmonized regu- lations and policies across the country ablyguidedby theCentral Government for its accelerated deployment given the current diverse environment. Pur- suant to the expanded priority sector lending for renewables, another ma- jor expectation is that all the banks, NBFCand financing institutions launch standardized financing products for financing rooftop solar in all the sectors including residential sector. Stakehold- ers are eagerly waiting for a favourable amendment by the Ministry of Power on the Rights for the Consumers (Elec- tricity) 2020 which limited net metering Avinash Hiranandani Manoj Gupta 50 energetica INDIA- Jan-Feb_2021