The government is looking at easing the process for households to avail credit for generating solar power under the government’s flagship scheme, PM Suryaghar Muft Bijli Yojana, officials said.
The new and renewable energy ministry is in discussions with the Department of Financial Services and public sector banks to simplify the process for grant of loans under the scheme, they said.
Discussions are going on to cut down on processes and document submissions and on the need to inspect the installation site by banks, among others, a government official said.
The scheme facilitates loans from public sector banks at 7% interest. Its national portal is integrated with Jan Samarth portal, a national portal for credit-linked government schemes.
“The inspection of the site is a heavy step and once removed can ease the process substantially,” said the official, who did not wish to be identified.
The scheme aims to enable households to generate their own electricity and achieve installations in 10 million households in the residential sector by 2026-27 with an outlay of Rs 75,021 crore. A financial outlay of Rs 9,600 crore has been allocated at the revised estimate stage in 2024-25 for the scheme.
While installations under the scheme have risen substantially compared with the earlier rooftop scheme, there are many areas of improvement that could help reduce the time taken for loan and subsidy disbursement, the official said.
The scheme has seen 685,763 installations so far since its launch in February, reaching 86% of the total installations in the decade before that.
