Rs 5,000-crore Subsidy for Rooftop Solar Power

Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved an increase in the budget for implementation of grid-connected solar rooftop systems to Rs. 5,000 crore from Rs.600 crore up to the financial year 2019-2020.

This will support installation of 4,200 MW solar rooftop systems in the country in next 5 years.

Subsidies

• The capital subsidy of 30% will be provided for general category States and Union Territories.
• 70% for special category States, including Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Lakshadweep, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and those in the North-East.
• There will be no subsidy for commercial and industrial establishments in the private sector since they are eligible for other benefits such as accelerated depreciation, custom duty concessions, excise duty exemptions and tax holiday.

 Revised target

• The government has revised the target of National Solar Mission (NSM) from 20,000 MW to 1, 00,000 MW by 2022. Of that, 40,000 MWp is to come through grid connected solar rooftop systems. 
• This approval will boost the installations in a big way and will act as a catalyst to achieve this goal.
• So far, 26 States have notified their regulations to provide Net Metering/Gross metering facilities to support solar rooftops installations.
• Now a days it is possible to generate solar power from the solar rooftop systems at about Rs 6.50/kWh. This is cheaper than the diesel gen-sets based power.