Interim Budget likely to increase subsidies for PM Suryoday Yojna: Report

FM Sitharaman may announce a budgetary allocation for the recent Pradhan Mantri Suryoday Yojna, a rooftop solar scheme for households, during the interim budget 2024.

This as per a Moneycontrol report. The report further added that the budget is expected to include substantial subsidies for the scheme, with an estimated allocation of at least 20,000 crore rupees.

The interim budget 2024 which will be announced on the 1st of Feb primarily serves as a vote-on-account ahead of the general elections scheduled for April-May 2024.

PM Modi on Pradhan Mantri Suryoday Yojna

On January 22, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that his initial decision upon returning from the Ram temple consecration ceremony in Ayodhya was to launch the Pradhan Mantri Suryoday Yojna in one crore households.

REC Ltd, a state-owned enterprise, has been designated as the executing agency for the scheme, with the aim of installing rooftop solar systems in one crore households within a year. The Interim Budget is expected to introduce an expanded range of government subsidies to encourage rooftop solar installations in homes.

It's worth noting that an existing Residential Rooftop Solar (RTS) scheme is in place, likely to be upgraded to the Pradhan Mantri Suryoday Yojna with new guidelines and incentives.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) initiated the current 'Rooftop Solar Programme Phase-II' on March 8, 2019, aiming for a 4,000 MW RTS capacity in the residential sector through subsidies or Central Financial Assistance (CFA). However, as of November 2023, the installed capacity under the RTS Phase-II subsidy scheme was 2651.10 MW.

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