India and the US have stuck to their positions on Civil Nuclear Liability and domestic content for solar plants.
Both the countries resumed the ministerial-level energy dialogue on Tuesday, which had come to a brief halt due to the controversy surrounding Indian diplomat Devyani Khorbade.
Both countries claimed success after the talks on Tuesday. However, when asked specific questions, the differences were clearly visible.
The Indian side was led by Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, while Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz headed the US delegation. The dialogue covered coal, oil and gas, power and renewable energy, while the civil nuclear energy issue would be discussed in Mumbai on Wednesday.
Nuclear Energy Both sides claimed that there was some development in the nuclear energy sector post the Indo-US deal. However, more needs to be done, said Ahluwalia , while accepting that the US and others who wanted to pursue nuclear co-operation had raised concerns on compensation, as prescribed in the Indian Act. Moniz said one of the key issues was resolution of the liability convention to ensure that India aligns with the international convention of supplementary compensation which is expected to come into force this year.
However, Ahluwalia had a different view.
“We are hopeful that within, I do not want to use the term ‘dilute’, the existing framework of the Civil Nuclear Liability Act, it should be possible to resolve these problems. It would be relevant not just for US suppliers, but also for French, Canadian, Russian and Indian suppliers. So, we will have to resolve it one way or other,” he said.
The US is peeved with the Indian Government’s condition of minimum 33 per cent domestic sourcing for entire capacity target in the first phase and for half of the proposed capacity in the second phase of the solar mission.
In fact, the Obama Administration had approached WTO twice over the last one year on this issue.
When asked, Moniz cited the analogy of the wind power sector where domestic sourcing had come down to 16-17 per cent from 25 per cent, with the expansion of capacity to 60-70,000 MW.
“Obviously, our view and point made in the WTO discussion is to advance toward that approach rather than a regulatory approach,” he said, adding that the US Government would wait for discussions in the WTO.