India government aims to invite investment for setting up of manufacturing plants in areas such as Solar Photo Voltaic cells, Lithium storage batteries and Solar electric charging infrastructure.
India finance minster Nirmala Sitharaman today said the government will launch a scheme to invite global companies through a transparent competitive bidding to set up mega-manufacturing plants in advanced technology areas such as Solar Photo Voltaic cells, Lithium storage batteries and Solar electric charging infrastructure.
India aims to provide investment linked income tax exemptions under section 35 AD of the Income Tax Act, and other indirect tax benefits to such companies.
India aims to become a global hub of manufacturing of electric vehicles. Inclusion of solar storage batteries and charging infrastructure will boost the efforts.
Government has already moved GST council to lower the GST rate on electric vehicles from 12 percent to 5 percent. India will provide additional income tax deduction of Rs 1.5 lakh on the interest paid on loans taken to purchase electric vehicles in order to make electric vehicle affordable to consumers. This amounts to a benefit of around 2.5 lakh over the loan period to the taxpayers who take loans to purchase electric vehicle.
Union Budget 2018-19 announced zero import duty on components used in making solar panels to give a boost to domestic solar panel manufacturers.
The share of renewables — excluding hydro above 25 MW — in total generation was around 10 percent in fiscal year 2018-19 compared to around 6 percent in 2014-15. India stands 4th in wind power, 5th in solar power and 5th in renewable power installed capacity.
The total renewable power installed capacity excluding hydro above 25 MW has more than doubled from 35 GW on 31 March 2014 to 78 GW on 31 March 2019.
In addition, around 27 GW renewable power capacity is under installation and over 38 GW under bidding. The target is to achieve an installed capacity of renewable based power of 175 GW by the year 2022.