MNRE Halves Inspection fee for Solar Manufacturing Capacity upto 50 MW

MNRE has revised the inspection fee for solar manufacturing capacity upto 50 MW to Rs 2.5 lakh from the existing Rs 5 lakh

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has notified that under its guidelines for the enlistment under its order for “Approved Models and Manufacture of Solar PV modules (Requirement for Compulsory Registration), it has revised the inspection fee for manufacturing capacity upto 50 MW to Rs 2.5 lakh from the existing Rs 5 lakh.

The fee was revised only in one category I.e. upto 50 MW capacity. For units situated in the SAARC (South Asian Association Regional Cooperation) countries, the price for capacity between 50 and upto 100 MW, More than 100 MW and upto 250 MW, and more than 250 MW, the inspection fee has remained the same at Rs 5 lakh, Rs 10 lakh and Rs 15 lakh respectively.

For units situated in non-SAARC countries, the inspection fee is fixed at Rs 30 lakh for any capacity.

In a recent interview, Brijesh Prajapati, Managing Director, SofarSolar, a leading inverter firm from China, and one of the earliest to get BIS certification for its Hybrid inverters said that the firm strongly recommends going with BIS Certified inverters for all tenders by state/central agencies.

“People will get certified quality products in the market from many labs whose only aim is to earn money by charging extremely high rates. In fact, we wish the government would regulate these non-BIS agencies more strictly. If Manufacturers/OEM companies are following BIS necessities on rules and regulation from Government then why not the same standards for private lab agencies? BIS certification in govt. tenders should be compulsory, and subsidies should not be provided, as is the case now,” he said.

Earlier in January, responding to pleas by multiple manufacturers and trade bodies, the Ministry had extended the last date for self-certification for SPV (solar) inverters yet again from December 31, 2020, to June 30, 2021, now. This is subject to the condition that relevant manufacturers will have valid IEC certificates corresponding to the relevant items specified in its notice from international test labs.

The order is expected to come as a relief to many manufacturers who had been complaining about long delays at BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) testing labs, besides the issue of costs and testing facilities for high capacity inverters.