Cheap Chinese tools killing Indian firms: Farooq

New Delhi: The country’s new energy companies were being “crushed” due to the dramatic slashing of prices of solar equipment by Chinese industry and the government will have to adopt regulatory measures to safeguard Indian interests, Union Minister Farooq Abdullah said in New Delhi today. Addressing a meeting on new energy, the Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy said, “The price of these panels has come down basically from China. Our own industry is suffering because these Chinese are bringing the prices of their panels down so dramatically to crush our industry.”[caption id=“attachment_256370” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Worried about competition. Image courtesy PIB”] [/caption] Abdullah admitted that the slashing of prices has helped in bringing down the cost of one unit of solar power from Rs 18 to Rs 7 in recent times but the country will have to safeguard its interests to help the local producers. “The FM will have to balance and put some sort of regulation on imports so that our factories don’t close down,” he said. Abdullah said when the solar mission started few years back, its aim was to develop an indigenous solar power producing industry and the government will have to ensure that “our own people are not out of work”. Indian new energy sector has been demanding some sort of protection against the Chinese imports and have been demanding anti-dumping duties to be imposed on Chinese firms. PTI