The Indian wing of US-based solar solutions provider Suntuity Group, Suntuity Renewable Energy India (REI), has said the Coronavirus pandemic is a wake-up call for the Government of India and it should focus more on giving tax benefits to people than subsidies. “If you really want to try to incentivise people to go solar than you have to incentivise them by giving tax benefits,” said Imaan Javan, Director of operations at Suntuity REI.

Javan further said when people see tax benefits in something, they tend to move towards that direction to save up on taxes. “Solar used to have subsidies across the board but now subsidies are only limited to residential projects. And these projects are not that large in numbers. I am not saying to give them subsidies, but you can give them some tax breaks or something similar,” she said, adding, “Like in the USA they have 26% flat ITC (investment tax credit) across the entire country (which was 30% for a long time earlier) no matter which state you are in and they have different benefits for the state and benefits from the states. Over here we don’t see it like that.”

The Government of India aims to reach a renewable energy capacity of 175 GW by 2022 and then 500 GW after that. “In order to be able to achieve that, the government needs to determine how they would help people. Tax benefits would be beneficial for the common man as well as the industry,” Javan said.