The customs duty, which add up to 10% of Solar Panels cost, would NOT be scrapped altogether as confirmed after a meeting between MNRE and the finance secretary ( refer ) . This would mean that the presumptions, about decreasing price of solar, of many developers may not come true, based on which they may have quoted to their clients or PPAs signed. However, those developers who have won auctions expecting the customs duty would be ‘protected’. That does not necessarily mean that the exemptions would be provided to them. It may be given in another form too which has not been specified. Of course, this would be for projects that have already been won and not the ones that follow. What we can expect is the tariff of INR 2.44 to be a minimum point for solar tariffs, which would rise going further (at least for a while). On the positive side, an increase in solar panel prices imported from outside India would make the Indian panels at par with foreign ones possibly...
