Piyush Goyal, Minister for Power, Coal, and New & Renewable Energy, hopes Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s Budget will incentivise the clean energy sector.

Goyal was responding to questions from across the globe at the maiden ‘Talkathon with a Union Minister’, organised by the Press Information Bureau on the sidelines of RE-Invest 2015.

On what he expects the Budget to have for his ministries, Goyal said, “My expectations from the Finance Minister are that he will help in facilitating participants in the renewable energy business. Be it developers or manufacturers, all of them need facilitation, clarity in policy, stability and be rid of tax terrorism.”

Goyal said that the New and Renewable Energy Ministry does not require additional budgetary allocation, but needs a policy which “allows investors to do their work without fear of the taxman”.

Inverted duty structure Removal of the inverted duty structure is another issue that Goyal wants Jaitley to address. Inverted duty structure refers to taxation of inputs at higher rates than finished products.

The Budget is expected to give a push to the clean energy sector, as it is also a pet subject of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In fact, during the interaction, Goyal pointed out how the Centre is easing ways of doing business in this sector. He gave an example of the change in the Government’s stance on imposing anti-dumping duty on solar power equipment.

Goyal said that his Ministry has started a dialogue with States to strengthen the distribution sector.

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