“It is understood that these companies are part of the same group, which breached the contract by not supplying the modules in accordance with the terms of the Agreement and even did not return the advance paid to them,” MNRE said in its advisory
New Delhi: The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) today issued an advisory against procuring solar photo voltaic (PV) modules from China’s CSUN Trading (Hong Kong) or CEEG (Shanghai) Solar Science Technology after receiving numerous representations from various Indian companies regarding breach of contract from the Chinese companies.
“It is understood that these companies are part of the same group, which breached the contract by not supplying the modules in accordance with the terms of the Agreement and even did not return the advance paid to them,” MNRE said in its advisory addressed to Solar Energy Corp (SECI), NTPC, solar power association, NSEFI, state governments, finance ministry, Indian Bank Association and all nationalized banks.
Solar project developers Acme Solar, RattanIndia and Refex Energy had complained to the ministry that CSUN had failed to honour contracts with them.
The ministry also said that as per the Consulate General of India in Shanghai, the ministry of external affairs, the Chinese firms are high risk companies and are facing over 160 court cases against them mostly for breach of contract with millions of Renminbi (RMB) in compensation amount.
ET had last week reported, quoting MNRE Secretary Anand Kumar, that the ministry is planning to prepare a list of approved suppliers to shield Indian companies from the risk of dealing with unreliable suppliers and the ministry will issue the list by March next year.
In the meantime, MNRE has advised all concerned stakeholders to contact Embassy of India, Beijing, China or the Consulate General of India, Shanghai to verify standing and reputation of various Chinese companies before placing any orders so that such incidences can be avoided.
Around 90 per cent of solar cells and modules used in Indian projects are imported, the bulk of them from China.
“Ministry had taken up these issues with the Ministry of External Affairs to impress upon the Chinese authorities to advise M/s CSUN Trading (Hong Kong) Co. Ltd., China (CSUN) / M/s CEEG (Shanghai) Solar Science Technology Co. Ltd., China, to meet the contractual obligations to the Indian companies and also to honour the arbitration award,” MNRE said.
ET had reported that in one case CSUN had agreed to supply solar modules of an aggregate capacity of 30 Mega Watt (MW) to Acme Solar, for which Acme Solar paid an advance of $2.95 million, which was 30 per cent of the purchase price or equal to the cost of 9 MW of equipment. CSUN failed to dispatch 9 MW of modules by the agreed deadline nor return the advance either. The Singapore arbitration court settled the matter in favour of Acme Solar on 24 January. However, the award of the Arbitration has not been honoured by the Chinese company.
India had recently imposed a 25 per cent safeguard duty on import of solar panels and modules, mostly from China and Malaysia from end-July 2018 for a year, which will be followed by a 20 per cent duty for six months and 15 per cent for another six months.
Also, India’s revenue department today imposed a five-year anti-dumping duty of up to $1,559 per tonne on imports of a certain type of sheet used in solar cell making from China, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Thailand to safeguard domestic players against cheap shipments.
Source: energy.economictimes.indiatimes
