The Union Budget 2017 Was a Missed Opportunity for the Solar Industry

Posted by: Rajesh Jhamb

The Union Budget of 2017 was announced on February 1, 2017. It is no doubt that the budget of the FY 2017-18 was the most anticipated budget of the recent past thanks to events like demonetization that shook the entire nation. As a result, the general consensus was that the Finance Minister, Mr Arun Jaitley will utilise the opportunity of the budget as a sweetener to the lower middle class and the poor who were affected the most by the drastic move of banning the Rs 1000 and Rs 500 currency notes in India.

The budget did include moves to help real estate recover from the jolts of demonetisation, promised at least 1 crore new houses to be built and reduction in tax rate from 10% to 5% for those in 2,50,000 to Rs 5,00,000 slab. There were several other interesting announcements, but for the solar and the renewable industry largely felt ignored. There were a couple of announcements made specifically for the world of solar including an ambitious plan of solarising at least 7000 railway stations. Yet, it felt like an opportunity missed, for solar. Read here to find out more on what did the Union budget of 2017 include for the solar sector and why was it a missed opportunity.

https://www.itsmysun.com/missed-opportunity-solar-union-budget-2017/