Finance minister Arun Jaitley has allocated Rs 5036 crore for the renewable energy sector in Budget 2016.
The finance minister in Budget 2015-16 had revised the target of renewable energy capacity to 1,75,000 MW till 2022, comprising 1,00,000 MW solar, 60,000 MW wind, 10,000 MW biomass and 5,000 MW small hydro.As on December 31,2015, cumulative capacity of about 38,820 MW off grid-interactive renewable energy capacity has been installed in the country which includes 25,088 MW from wind power, 4,878 MW from solar power, 4,177 MW from small hydro power and 4,677 MW from bio-power.
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) Joint Secretary Tarun Kapoor had recently said that while the one lakh MW target is ambitious, it's achievable. "By March end we will be around 6,500 MW and by March 2017 we will have 20,000 MW capacity," he had said. The government also said installed capacity of solar power crossed 5,000 MW in January.
Considering the tall target, the industry was expecting tax incentives and financial support to make 'solar' an attractive and viable option. The renewable energy ministry had also sought over Rs 10,000 crore as increased budgetary allocation to meet this ambitious target.
By way of incentive, Jaitley has reduced excise duty on carbon pultrusions used for manufacture of rotor blades, and intermediates, parts and sub-parts of rotor blades for wind operated electricity generators, to 6 percent from 12.5 percent.
At the same time, excise duty on unsaturated polyester resin (polyester-based infusion resin and hand layup resin), hardeners/hardener for adhesive resin, vinyl easter adhesive (VEA) and epoxy resin used for manufacture of rotor blades, and intermediates, parts and sub-parts of rotor blades for wind-operated electricity generators being increased to 6 percent from nil.
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