- Orissa High Court has responded to the petition filed by project developers to withdraw its safeguard duty notification
- Court had previously put a temporary stay on imposing safeguard duty till August 20, 2018, but the government still went ahead and issued a notification
- The Orissa High Court will take up the case for next hearing which is scheduled for August 14, 2018
The Ministry of Finance under the Government of India has been directed by the Orissa High Court to withdraw its notification imposing safeguard duty on imported solar cells from China and Malaysia. One of the petitioners against the safeguard duty.
ACME Solar had obtained from the Orissa High Court a stay on levying the safeguard duty that was to remain in force till August 20, 2018, but the government went ahead ignoring the stay order (see 25% Safeguard Duty Imposed By India).
Hero Future Energies and Vikram Solar came into the picture post the Ministry of Finance’s decision to impose the duty demanding a seamless and practical exercise of the pass-through option for solar power projects (see Developers Take Legal Route Against Safeguard Duty). They want already bid out projects to be exempted from the safeguard duty.
Now, the High Court has ordered the government to withdraw the notification by August 13, 2018. A next hearing is scheduled for August 14, 2018.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has sought exemption from the safeguard duty for all solar power projects already awarded or at implementation stage before July 20, 2018, according to The Economic Times.
