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Amendments in change in law in recent solar tender to provide a big relief to developers

SECI amendment to its PPA for its 1.2 GW solar tender has provided a sigh of relief to developers, where anti-dumping duty or safeguard duty or customs duty on solar photovoltaic (PV) modules shall be included in change in law and solar power developer will be entitled to either an increase or decrease in the tariff. Solar developers will get such benefits only if they produce relevant documents and bills. Imposition of tariff cap of Rs. 2.78 did also put a lot of pressure on the developers which was later released. Also safeguard duty of 15% in imported modules and cells is coming to end on July 2020, which may see more participation in the forthcoming tenders. Also basic customs duty of 20% on imported solar cells and modules is now currently exempted. Such supporting acts by the government is poised to bring in more investor faith in the segment and future auction may see more competitive rates.