Energetica India Magazine January-February 2021

51 upto 10 kW.” In-line with expectations of Dinesh Babu for rooftop solar, Jaideep N. Malaviya, Managing Director, Malaviya Solar En- ergy Consultancy , told to Energetica In- dia that he expect, “Hon’ble Finance Min- ister to kindle the Solar City programme by reserving particular budget to encourage rooftop solar systems like solar power and solar water heaters. Concurrently, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy can set targets for Rooftop solar PV and solar water heaters in these Solar cities. The budget may be used for publicity for masses, awareness of DISCOM’s and ca- pacity building workshops that will result in employment generation. This will boost industrial production.” Focusing on supportive policy measures for distribution space, JaideepMukherji, CEO, Smart Power India , shared with Energetica India, that “I believe that the power sector could play a crucial role in India’s economic revival in the post-pan- demic world. As the sector continues to recover from the pandemic shock, I would expect the Union Budget 2021-22 to propose supportive policy measures to address the existing systemic challenges, particularly in the distribution space. As a major link between the power generation sector and the last-mile consumer, the DISCOMs would require continued gov- ernment support both in terms of policy action and necessary stimulus packages to build greater financial resilience and operational efficiency in the long run. Hence, I expect strong policy measures and a higher allocation of funds for DIS- COMs in the upcoming budget that can help the sector strengthen its existing infrastructure and adopt the best prac- tices to improve power delivery to the un-served and under-served communities in the country.” Adding to it, Manoj Gupta, VP-Solar and BUDGET Waste to Energy Business, Fortum India , also wants some clarity on tariff and non-tariff concessions, Grand fathering clause etc and told to Ener- getica India “there is a policy impetus under the initiative of Atmanirbhar Bharat to promote domestic manu- facturing of solar cells and modules, more clarity is required on policy measures for both tariff (such as ba- sic customs duties) and non-tariff concessions. In addition, the clarity of compensation or safeguarding the ongoing solar projects through Grand fathering approach due to change in duties like safeguard or Basic custom duty on import of modules fromChina and other countries will bringmore eq- uity in the market for fast future growth of renewable energy sector. Given that an overall progress in im- plementing various schemes an- nounced by the Government to pro- mote procurement of modules from domestic players is slow, it is criti- cally necessary to implement such supportive measures for domestic players, until their scale and cost competitiveness improves against impor ts, par ticularly from China. While a liquidity relief scheme was announced in May 2020 to provide liquidity to state DISCOMs through state government guarantee-backed loans, it remains a short-termmeasure and the payments from few of the DISCOMs are still stuck up. So far, this scheme has been only partially implemented. An announcement of a higher budgetary allocation is expected towards strengthening of the distribution infrastructure, which will enable DISCOMs to improve their operational efficiencies.” On boostingMake in India for domes- tic solar manufacturing industry and making India Inc globally competitive, Avinash Hiranandani, Global CEO&MD of RenewSys India , talking to Energetica India said, “the Ministry has been a great support, however for the industry to bounce back to pre-covid levels we will need their continued policy support and in its execution. The key policies that we look forward to are: Firstly, Basic Customs Duty – which once formalized will help Indian module manufacturers in planning long term investments; an Equalisa- tion levy is also important to protect domestic manufacturers based in SEZ’s from BCD. Secondly, Performance Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme - with more fund allocation, and a separate amount earmarked for PV Cells, as the solar manufacturing industry by its nature is capital intensive. Lastly, Export Incentives - increasing the incentives at least to the tune of 8%.” Expecting some financial stimulus, Neeraj Sharma, President & Managing Director of Wartsila India , told to Energetica India, “there need to be right impetus provided to the growth of our economy by providing favourable Direct and Indirect Tax policies, priority lending at cheaper rates, amongst other things. Once these are in place, eco- nomic benefits like making India $5 trillion economy by 2024-25 and emergence of new employment opportunities can be realised.” While talking to Energetica India on creating a specialised infrastructure funding institu- tion, Hartek Singh, CMD of Hartek Group , needs “comprehensive policy and regulatory framework to encourage firms to invest more in innovation and technology with the larger objective of bringing about a transformation in the power sector. The skewed tariffs of downstream distribution utilities should be Yuvaraj Dinesh Babu Nithyanandam Jaideep N. Malaviya energetica INDIA- Jan-Feb_2021