Solar module plants seek duty on import

Local solar module assemblers are seeking support from the government to stay in the race as they are facing a tough competition with importers of cheaper panels.
A module manufacturer said: "We need protection from the government and everywhere of the world such protection is available to save any local industry."
He said the government should impose a certain rate of duty on import of solar modules to ease the existing uneven competition in the market.
Currently, the locally-assembled solar modules are sold at higher prices than those of those imported free of duty.
"We use imported materials and maintain quality. So, the overall cost is high and our products are costlier than the imported ones," said a source in a local company assembling such panels.
He said, "Our machines are currently lying idle and the bank interests are accumulating. So, a horrible situation is waiting for the local assemblers, who intend to market solar panels with value addition locally."
More than Tk 1.5 billion has already been invested in the sector that can help produce 90 megawatts of power locally, industry insiders have said.
But due to the low demand attributed to the cheaper products available from China and other countries, the people are using the imported ones, they have said.
According to an organisation, which is working under the Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL) said it was easier for them to use the imported panels.
He said more than 30 participatory organisations were using imported panels as they were finding them cheaper than the local ones. The chief executive of a leading SHS (solar home system) installation company said: "Bangladesh has already installed more than two million SHSs in the off-grid rural areas and it is accelerating every day."
He said the solar panels were currently being used mainly for running SHSs, solar irrigation pumps, solar street lamps and solar powered-based transceiver stations of mobile phone companies.
He said as there was the government's directive to use solar power up to a certain level, the demand for solar panels was increasing.
But the government's withdrawal of the provision for mandatory installation of solar panels on rooftops before getting new electricity connections posed a threat to the local solar panel factories. Now no one would install solar panels on their rooftops, he added.
Another assembler said: "I have invested money in assembling solar modules, but currently a major part of my production capacity is remaining unutilised."
He said, "Though there is an internal demand for my solar panels, for others it is a disaster. For, the government's open market policy has seen the local market flooded with cheaper and low quality panels."
An SHS installing company said in many cases the quality of local panels was better than foreign imported panels.
He said the customers' apathy to local products was a problem. The government had taken an initiative to install a testing lab with the help of the World Bank to ensure quality control, he added.
He said if once the lab was installed and the locally-assembled modules were tested in the high-tech lab, that could give the people the confidence.
But until the lab facility was available, the government needed to protect the investors investing in the solar panel assembling sector.