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12
Investment Proposals Cleared Under Semiconductor
Policy
Bangalore: The
Centre has given an ‘in-principle’ approval to 12 of
the 15 investment applications received for
incentives under the existing semiconductor policy.
Of these, six proposals have received financial
closure, said India Semiconductor Association (ISA).
FE has learnt that proposals from Moser Baer, KSK
Surya Photovoltaic Ventures, Lanco Solar, Bhaskar
Silicon and Solar Semiconductor have received
financial closure after firms demonstrated
capability to raise funds to the extent of Rs 1,000
crore as required.
The proposals have been cleared based on the data
submitted by 12 companies. The government subsidy
will follow when they achieve financial closure and
other milestones.
The policy, which encourages semiconductor and solar
PV manufacturing, offers a capital subsidy of 20%
for manufacturing plants in SEZs and 25% for
manufacturing outside SEZs. The subsidy, however, is
based on the condition that the net present value
(NPV) of the investment is at least $212 million.
As of December 2009, the government had received 15
applications with investment proposals worth Rs
1,30,899 crore.
New investors are considering states like Andhra
Pradesh, UP, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu as their
destination for solar PV production. Andhra Pradesh,
for instance, is developing a solar farm cluster
called Solar City on 10,000 acre at Kadiri in
Anantapur district. The city is expected to attract
investments worth Rs 3,000 crore in the first phase.
“The recent investments in solar PV manufacturing
are essentially from large players looking at both
domestic and export markets. As the cost of power
generation from solar PV reduces, India itself could
emerge as a market for solar energy,” said ISA
president Poornima Shenoy.
Citing latest data from ministry of new and
renewable energy (MNRE), ISA said during 2008-09, 15
companies were actively engaged in the manufacture
of solar cells in India and 20 in the manufacturing
of modules. And about 50 companies are actively
engaged in the manufacturing of various PV systems.
The overall production in the country during 2008-09
is estimated to be over 175 MWp of solar cells and
240 MWp of PV modules.
India has always been a net exporter of solar PV
technology with about 66% of overall domestic PV
production till 2009 catering to the overseas
market. According to the commerce ministry, India’s
export of solar PV amounted to Rs 2,452 crore in
2008-09, a jump from Rs 956 crore, the country
exported in 2007-08.
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