PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana: Over 1.28 Cr Registrations

New Delhi, Jul 23 (PTI) Over 1.28 crore registrations have been made under the PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana and the government will take all possible steps to achieve the target to install rooftop solar equipment for 1 crore beneficiaries at the earliest, Union Minister Pralhad Joshi said on Tuesday.

In a post-budget interaction, the Minister for New and Renewable Energy said around 15 lakh applications have been received under the scheme as per the latest number.

In February, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the scheme, which aims to light up one crore households by installing rooftop solar equipment and providing up to 300 units of free electricity every month.

"As per the latest numbers, more than 1.28 crore registrations done and 15 lakh applications received and whatever is needed to achieve this target we are doing everything for that.

"We will see that the Prime Minister's ambitious target of one crore households to be connected to rooftop solar is achieved at the earliest," Joshi said.

He said the portal now has 7,300 vendors from 4,000 one year back, Joshi said.

Further, the minister said that it is being considered to make it mandatory that discoms must purchase excess power from consumers.

In case a beneficiary of the initiative does not need the entire 300 units of power, he can sell it to discoms, Joshi said.

The scheme provides a Central Financial Assistance (CFA) of 60 per cent of system cost for 2 kW systems and 40 per cent of additional system cost for systems between 2 kW and 3 kW capacity. The CFA will be capped at 3 kW.

At current benchmark prices, this will mean Rs 30,000 subsidy for 1 kW system, Rs 60,000 for 2 kW systems and Rs 78,000 for 3 kW systems or higher, as per the scheme.