Energetica India Magazine January-February 2021

52 energetica INDIA- Jan-Feb_2021 BUDGET rationalised vis-à-vis the cost structure to opti- mise cross-subsidy and create competitiveness in the industry. Measures to facilitate timely pay- ments from states to upstream utilities will take care of cash flow constraints. We also expect the Finance Minister to incentivise investments in R&D in renew¬ables and storage technologies. The government should create a robust ecosys- tem for indigenous solar manufacturing through allocation of more funds, extension of financial assistance on term loans, upfront central financial assistance on CAPEX and exemptions in BCD to units in SEZs to realise its vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat. It should create a separate category for RE under priority sector lending to enable IPPs to get more funding from banks. Let us capitalise on the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency further and create a specialised infra- structure funding institution which can refinance operating assets at competitive rates.” Hartek Singh Nikhil Gupta Neeraj Sharma Agreeing on this, Manish Narula, Senior Di- rector - BD (India) & Sales Head (West/South), JinkoSolar, shared with Energetica India, “in this budget we expect certain support to IPP com- munity by way of reduced duty burden to make Solar Tariff more sustainable and attractive. This will also make DISCOMs willingly come forward to sign pending PPAs/PSAs. In addition, Solar Manufacturing also needs a big push by way of supportive long term policy announcement.” Adding to this wishlist, YogeshMudras, Manag- ing Director, Informa Markets in India , shared with Energetica India that, “since, the renewable energy sector grew at a much-reduced pace last year due to the Covid pandemic, the focus needs to be on large scale reform in the sector, with pri- vatization and competition being two key themes for the reform. Furthermore, higher allocation for rural electrification, development of renewable energy infrastructure, improving tariff competitiveness and policy thrust will be essential for capacity addition.” While aligning with the government’s Make in India goals, Sunil Badesra, Director, Sungrow India , interacting with Energetica India, said “we would like to have favourable duty structure on finished goods and minimum im - port duties on raw materials to make our locally produced goods in highly competitive global markets. We are hopeful that the budget will have more for local manufacturers in the direction of an Aatmnirbhar Bharat in solar sector.” Stressing on the need for building infrastructure for the Lithium Ion bat- teries, AK Shukla, Founder, San- varu Technology , discussed with Energetica India, “this budget should focus on investment into building infrastructure for Li-Ion battery, next gen energy storage system like Hy- drogen fuel cells and energy efficient carriage of renewable energy and integration. Our urge to the govern- ment: Firstly, basic concessional import duty on Rechargeable Li-Ion cell/accumulators for manufactur- ing of Li-Ion batteries/battery packs should be restricted to 5% for next two financial years. Secondly, MSME with positive turnover should have a government support for setting up of R&D facility for advanced Li-Ion cells or other chemistry. Thirdly, Govern- ment should provide support system through an expert committee for Facilitation of easy qualitative finance and listing of well doing MSME’s to BSE and NSE by relaxation in fees and norms.” On incentivising local manufacturing, Swapnil Jain, Director - Sales & Marketing, KSolare Energy , shared with Energetica India, “GOI should focus on building infra in India by sup- porting Indian players specially com- panies into inverter manufacturing like ours who is completely focusing to become self sustainable. Repli- cating previous policy of significant depreciation against investments towards renewable energy would further boost the prospects. Incen- tivising local manufacturing industry has been a long time due.” In-line with other industry stakehold- ers, Nikhil Gupta, Business Head, Delta Electronics India , said, “we hope this year budget should address how we should boost the domes- tic market to support vocal for local vision as together we lead towards Aatmnirbhar Bharat. The industry requires comprehensive policy frame- work encompassing tariff as well as non-tariff barriers, direct incentives and other benefits to make the in- dustry more competitive. We are expecting the upcoming budget will focus on how the solar power industry can become more resilient contribut- ing in India’s growth towards green economy.” - Manu Tayal