LAHORE, Sep 27 (APP): Chief of the Energy Training and Research Center (ETRC) and the renowned Solar Trainer Eng. Faiz Bhutta on Tuesday urged the government to lift restrictions on imports of solar equipment otherwise solar businesses would close down.
He stated this at the inaugural session of a 60-day free course on Solar Photovoltaic (PV) system held in collaboration with a Chinese Company Longi Solar here.
Eng. Bhutta said that Pakistan, in the prevailing energy crisis, direly needed to promote alternate energy generation systems and solar was on the top of this, which was speedily being adopted by the consumers themselves.
However, government’s support to this sector was direly needed with a consistent and conducive policy for the solar energy for smooth growth of the sector, he maintained.
Bhutta added that under the current policy, the solar companies had to apply in advance for import of the required equipment and had to wait for a long time. By the time approval was received, he argued, the cost of the equipment was increased making the project unviable, he added.
Eng. Bhutta mentioned that government had recently exempted import duty from solar panels, and also allowed duty free import of invertors on prior approval but the implementation of this permission had been stopped. He observed that a huge number of business houses dealing in the solar sector would close thus depriving thousands of the workers of their jobs in case a favorable policy was not enforced for this sector.
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