Meanwhile, “the announcement of 25-40% BCD is expected to be a game changer for domestic manufacturing prospects, much more so than the PLI scheme enhancement,” he said. Rustagi said that the PLI fund is “not a substantive amount” but that with other measures such as “the BCD and assured demand for residential and agricultural solar in place, it is also quite unnecessary”. While the PLI announcement made for great headlines with a quadrupling of its funding, Rustagi – who has referred to the budget as “a damp squib” – said the greater impact on domestic manufacturing would come from the expected BCD figures. PV Tech Premium spoke with experts in India to examine what the budget means for the country’s solar industry, exploring the impact on domestic manufacturing as well as deployment. Other analysts, however, were more bullish about the impact of the PLI funding increase. That’s according to Vinay Rustagi, managing director of research firm Bridge to India (BTI), who said the BCD announcement would do more for domestic manufacturing than the further INR19,500 crore (US$2.6 billion) of funding announced for India’s Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme. The Indian government’s budget announcement on Monday (1 February) is set to be a “game-changer” for domestic manufacturing following the imposition of a Basic Customs Duty (BCD) of 25% on solar PV cells and of 40% on solar PV modules from April this year. Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman presents the budget in its iconic red cloth folder in 2021.
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