Hon’ble Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman’s fourth Union Budget under the Modi 2.0 Government has outlined incredible strategies and action plans to strengthen the Make in India vision and enable India’s transition to a low carbon economy. The Finance Minister laid stress on the impact of climate change and highlighted that the finance ministry is working on targeted initiative aligned to India’s commitment at the COP26 (2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference) Summit in Glasgow.
The Union Budget 2022-23 is visionary and action oriented. The key measures announced in the budget towards enabling ease of doing business, climate action, digital economy, strengthening the start-up ecosystem, job creation and supporting industrial growth, will propel a strong growth momentum.
The Budget 2022 is growth focused with clear roadmap for infrastructure. The PM Gati Shakti master plan focusing on seven growth engines and four big priorities, including the Energy Transition and Climate Action will bring transformational changes and accelerate India’s green energy growth. The increase in capital expenditure by 35.4% as a pump-priming measure, is a significant boost for employment generation.
We are glad the finance minister, continued to focus on enabling India’s clean energy transition. We welcome the additional PLI allocation of INR 19,500 crore for manufacturing high-efficiency solar modules for the existing wait-listed PLI bidders. This will strengthen the domestic solar manufacturing ecosystem, thereby reduce our import dependence, create jobs, attract investments and enable the Make in India vision. Additionally, the sovereign green bonds will boost green infrastructure development which will help in meeting India’s carbon emission reduction targets. Green bonds will also enable international yield curve for Indian corporates, leading to better pricing for bonds. The battery-swapping policy with interoperability standards will boost the Electric Vehicle (EV) ecosystem.
As domestic solar manufacturers, we are appreciative of the Government’s focus towards strengthening domestic solar industry by notifying the Basic Custom Duties on solar modules and solar cells effective from 1st April 2022. We are confident, with the implementation and roll-out of the measures announced in Budget 2022, we will move closer towards realizing the Aatmanirbhar Bharat vision in solar sector and bring in energy security to the country through green power.