Narendra Modi-led government is set to present its first Union Budget after re-election in the recently concluded 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The power sector is keeping its fingers crossed on whether the government will be able to carry out the necessary mid-course correction measures to facilitate the much-needed boost to the sector.
Renewable industry remains at the limelight for quite a while now. As the country targets to achieve 175 GW generation capacity by 2022, renewable energy initiatives are taking centre stage. However, experts believe, this industry may gradually fade away if issues like delaying payments and reducing profitability are not addressed in time.
Nikunj Ghodawat, Chief Financial Officer, CleanMax Solar suggests that the Centre should formalise power ministry’s recommendation to the RBI to categorise renewable energy into a separate segment and remove priority sector lending limit for the sector to ensure higher credit financing availability whereas Radhika Choudary, Co-Founder and Director, Freyr Energy recommends income tax benefits for a customer to go solar.
According to industry estimates, the electrical equipment industry is facing slowdown in few product segments, due to lack of demand and increasing imports that has touched around US$ 10.24 billion in 2018-19. Amid this backdrop, industry body IEEMA has urged the government to increase the competitiveness of the domestic electrical equipment industry by reducing the cost of manufacturing.
Hope the Budget announcements will give a much-needed breather to the power sector as a whole.
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