The Safeguard Duty case in the Madras High Court will continue to be dragged on for some more time. According to Mercom’s sources in the court, the Madras High Court has now postponed the hearing on the imposition of Safeguard Duty to March 2, 2018.

Today was the fourth hearing of this case. The first hearing took place on January 19, followed by another on February 2. The third hearing was held on 13 February, 2018.

In January 2018, the Madras High Court had put a temporary stay on the recommendation to levy a 70 percent safeguard duty on the import of solar components to India.

The stay order was issued by Justice T. S. Sivagnanam of the Madras High Court. The court was listening to a petition filed by project developer Shapoorji Pallonji requesting that the court intervene in the matter.

In a preliminary finding, the Directorate General of Safeguards Customs and Central Excise had recommended a 70 percent safeguard duty on solar cells imported from China and Malaysia for a period of 200 days.

The recommendation came after the Indian Solar Manufacturers Association (ISMA) filed a petition with the Directorate General of Safeguards Customs and Central Excise in December 2017, seeking the imposition of a safeguard duty on imported solar cells from China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan.

Most manufacturers in the country are not in favor of the imposition of duties on import of solar components as domestic cell manufacturing capacity is not yet sufficient to replace imports.

Image credit: Wikipedia