PANAJI
Nearly 400-odd consumers in Goa, who have installed rooftop solar plants on their houses at their own cost and are eligible for a subsidy, are waiting for Central assistance under PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana, for more than six months now, despite sanction. Pending central subsidy, the State government is in no position to release its share, thus leaving consumers frustrated.
In February, this year, the National Rooftop Solar portal, was migrated to the PM Surya Ghar portal- making it a single platform to apply for Central and State subsidy. However, the non-release of payment by the Centre has resulted in the State holding back its subsidy.
“The issue is not just in Goa but across many other States. Since the migration of the portal, the consumers have to apply only on one portal to avail subsidy from both Centre and State. As per the guidelines, once Centre releases its subsidy, the same automatically get updated to State, who then releases its share,” sources said.
Sources said that the department of New and Renewable Energy is in touch continuously with the Central officials to see that subsidies are released in a time-bound manner. “The things are working out in phased manner and we admit there is a delay. But sometimes, even after sanction at Central level, the release of funds takes time due to various issues including co-operation from the empanelled banks,” sources said.
In July, the State government had released subsidies to close to 30 rooftop beneficiaries and after that the State is awaiting a nod from the Centre.
The delays in disbursement of subsidies–at the Central and State level–left consumers fuming with anger and frustrated. Hence, it is learnt from some vendors, that despite the fall in panel prices, customers are not willing to opt for solar power.
One of the vendors said “not a single subsidy payment for projects installed after mid-February has been disbursed. The delay is now close to six to seven months. Consumers are questioning us and we are in no position to answer”.
The revised scheme was launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 20 and is expected to benefit one crore households.
Under the scheme, 1 kW: the subsidy is Rs 30,000, 2 kW: the subsidy is Rs 60,000 and 3 kW or higher: the subsidy is Rs 78,000 or higher.
In Goa, over 820 consumers have installed solar rooftops with a total capacity of 23,260 kW. The State subsidy is restricted to 50 per cent for the first 10 kWp and subsidy restricting to 10 per cent beyond 10 kWp upto 30 kWp of sanction load to the Residential consumers based on the benchmark cost provided by MNRE.
