Lenders averse to financing tariff hurdles placed to check Chinese solar imports
New Delhi: Lenders are averse to finance the cost of tariff barriers imposed by India to check cheap Chinese solar imports, said two people aware of the development.
Despite the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) ensuring that the safeguard duty—imposed since 30 July 2018 on solar cells, modules and inverters imported from China and Malaysia—be a part of the project cost by allowing a pass-through in power tariffs, no bank or financial institution has financed a loan for it till date.
With debt financing for green energy projects drying up, the quantum of these unfunded levies assumes significance, given that India is running what will become the world’s largest clean energy programme. This has also diverted equity flow meant for new projects as firms are using it to finance this duty.
