No new duty will be imposed on solar panels: Shahbaz Sharif
Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has said that no new duty is being imposed on solar panels, but renewable solar energy will be delivered to every citizen.
Other issues were also discussed in the meeting of the Federal Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister in Islamabad on Tuesday.
After the increase in electricity prices and load shedding in Pakistan, the purchase of solar panels increased rapidly and on June 12, the Finance Minister during his budget speech said that tax concessions will be given on import of equipment to promote the solar panel industry. .
These devices include raw materials for manufacturing plant machinery and associated equipment, solar panels, inverters and batteries.
This gave the impression that the government has given relief to the sector, contrary to the news about solar panels for the past several months, but experts and the Pakistan Solar Panels Association say that solar panels and There is already no customs duty imposed on the related equipment and machinery, so this announcement by the government does not seem to bring any new benefit to the solar industry.
Experts said that in the budget speech, the finance minister announced the abolition of sales tax exemption, which is likely to increase the prices of solar.
Since then there have been rumors that there may be a new tax on solar panels.
After the budget, Zafar Iqbal, Secretary of Pakistan Solar Panels Association, while talking to Urdu News, said that there is ambiguity regarding taxes on solar panels in the speech of the Finance Minister. On the one hand, they talk about exemptions on raw materials and components related to solar panels, which are already tax-free, and on the other hand, they are announcing the end of sales tax exemptions. We are still not clear what the government is trying to say in this regard.
Even earlier, during April, there were reports of taxation on solar power, which were dismissed by the Ministry of Energy as baseless.
In a statement issued on April 27, the Central Power Purchasing Agency or Power Division said that ‘rich people are installing solar panels in a reckless manner, resulting in an unjustified increase in the bills of about two and a half to three crore poor consumers. It is happening, and if this trend continues, the bills of these two and a half to three crore poor consumers will increase by at least six rupees per unit in a few years.
