In line with the Interim Budget announcement in February this year, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday announced the launch of Pradhan Mantri-Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana (PM Free Electricity scheme), to promote rooftop solar (RTS) installations in India by providing one crore households with free electricity for up to 300 units every month.
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Announced a slew of measures for the promotion of green growth and renewable energy, the Finance Minister said in her Budget 2024 speech, “The rooftop solar scheme has generated remarkable response with over 1.28 crore registrations and 14 lakh applications.”
The benefits expected from solarisation are savings up to Rs 15,000-18,000 crore annually for households from free solar electricity and selling the surplus to the distribution companies; charging of electric vehicles; entrepreneurship opportunities for a large number of vendors for supply and installation; and employment opportunities for the youth with technical skills in manufacturing, installation and maintenance, the government had said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the scheme following the consecration ceremony at Ayodhya in January.
A ₹75,021-crore package for the scheme was approved by the previous government in February this year. An official press release stated that the Centre wiould fund 60% of the cost for installing for 2 kW (kilowatt) systems and 40% of the cost for systems from 2-3 kW capacity.
The Centre has tweaked the new ₹75,000-crore PM-Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojna (Prime Minister’s Rooftop Solar: Free Electricity Scheme). From an initial plan to fully subsidise the installation of 1-3 KW solar systems in one crore households via tie-ups with renewable energy service companies, the scheme will now only contribute up to 60% of the costs, The Hindu has learnt.
India was to install 40 GW of rooftop-solar by 2022 but has managed about 12 GW so far. Only a quarter of these are on houses with the rest in commercial settings.
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Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman created history as she presented her seventh straight Budget and the first Budget by the BJP-led NDA government since it was re-elected last month. Ms. Sitharaman tabled the Economic Survey of the financial year 2024 in the Lok Sabha on Monday. The Survey projected India’s financial year 2025 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth to range between 6.5% and 7%. The growth projected for 2024-25 is lower than the economic growth rate of 8.2% estimated for the previous financial year.
