The Federal Government has decided to formulate a comprehensive policy to curb import of sub-standard solar equipment. The decision was taken at the recent meeting of Federal Cabinet during ratification of the ECC decision taken on a summary of Commerce Division titled “Implementation of the quality standards on the import of solar PV equipment under SRO 604(1)/ 2019.”
On November 1, 2019, the Commerce Division informed the ECC that the Federal Cabinet on September 17,2015 approved the summary of Water and regarding the “introduction of quality standards for import of solar PV equipment into Pakistan. After which the Commerce Division issued SRO 604(1)/ 2019 on May 28, 2019 to implement the decision of the Cabinet.
After implementation of the SRO, a number of shipments got stuck at the ports and the importers complained of lack of clarity amongst the stakeholders, pre-shipment companies and border agencies regarding the documentation requirements under SRO 604.
In order to resolve the issue, the Commerce Division convened an inter-ministerial meeting of the stakeholders on August 5, 2019 which was attended by the representatives of Power Division, AEDB, Pakistan National Accreditation Council (PNAC), Pakistan Standard and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) and importers of the solar PV equipment etc.
