PM-Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana will help cut transport bills, says PM

The PM spoke in an exclusive interview with News18 Group Editor-in-Chief Rahul Joshi, News18 Kannada Editor Hariprasad, and News18 Lokmat Anchor Vilas Bade.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that PM-Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana will not only cut electricity bills of households in India but also help slash fuel costs.

“I would like that whoever has a scooter or car should be able to charge it at home through solar energy. This means the transportation cost of Rs 1,000-Rs 2,000 per month for the person should also become zero,” Modi said.

The PM spoke in an exclusive interview with News18 Group Editor-in-Chief Rahul Joshi, News18 Kannada Editor Hariprasad, and News18 Lokmat Anchor Vilas Bade.

He pointed out that his government aims to help install solar panels in every household in India and reduce the electricity bill of families to zero.

PM Modi outlined three objectives of the PM-Surya Ghar scheme: zero electricity bills for households, sales of surplus electricity by households, and reducing India’s reliance on imported fossil fuels.

He added that by switching to renewable forms of energy and electric vehicles both the citizens of India and the country’s economy would benefit from a cleaner environment and saving of “billions of dollars” while importing petroleum, respectively.

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The Union Cabinet last month approved the PM-Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana with a total outlay of Rs 75,021 crore for installing rooftop solar panels and providing free electricity up to 300 units every month for one crore households. He launched the scheme on February 13.

The scheme provides central financial assistance of 60 percent of system cost for 2 kW systems and 40 percent of additional system cost for systems between 2 kW to 3 kW capacity. The central financial assistance will be capped at 3 kW.

Households will also be able to access collateral-free low-interest loan products of around 7 percent at present for the installation of residential rooftop solar systems up to 3 kW.

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Other features of the scheme include a model solar village to be developed in each district to act as a role model for the adoption of rooftop solar in rural areas.

Besides, urban local bodies and Panchayati Raj institutions will also benefit from incentives for promoting rooftop solar installations in their areas.

The scheme provides a component for payment security for renewable energy service company (RESCO)-based models as well as a fund for innovative projects in RTS.

Through this scheme, households will be able to save electricity bills and earn additional income by selling surplus power to discoms.

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The scheme is aimed at adding 30 GW of solar capacity through rooftop solar in the residential sector, generating 1,000 BUs (billion units) of electricity and resulting in a reduction of 720 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions over the 25-year lifetime of rooftop systems.