UPDATE 14 August - Few clear winners and many questions as India imposes safeguard duty on solar PV imports
Josefin Berg | Dharmendra Kumar
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August 14, 2018
UPDATE: On 13 August India’s Ministry of Finance released a statement, which directs All Principal Chief Commissioner/Chief Commissioner of Customs and Central Excise & GST, not to charge Safeguard Duty for the time being. This statement has been released to be in compliance with interim directions issued by the High Court of Odisha in written petition number 12817 of 2018.
This decision means that PV modules and cells can for the time being enter India without any safeguard duty. Importers are however requested to sign a letter that obliges them to retroactively pay if the government re-instates the duties. The temporary halt to the safeguard duties improves the outlook for those companies seeking tariff exemptions for awarded projects, and for manufacturing in SEZs (see below). Near-term it means that shipments already heading to India can be cleared without duty (for now). New orders will depend on the confidence that developers and manufacturers have in the government's ability to approve the requested exceptions. IHS Markit assesses that it will take at least a month for the issue to be settled.
