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New Delhi : In a major boost to the national solar mission, the Union Cabinet today accorded approval for scaling up budget for grid-connected rooftop solar projects by a multiple of above eight times. This move has made the budget scale up from the existing 600 crore Rupees to 5,000 crore.The budget, which is planned for disbursement over next five years up to 2019-20, will support capacity addition of 4,200 MW.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by  Prime  Minister  Narendra Modi  has  approved  the massive scaling up of budget from  Rs, 600 crore to Rs. 5,000 crore for implementation of Grid Connected Rooftops systems over a period of five years upto 2019-20 under National Solar Mission (NSM). This budget build up would assist towards infrastructure strengthening in the likes of installation of solar rooftop systems, strengthening of industrial and commercial sector of Solar energy, and helping an easing of subsidy burden both ways. The move would support Installation of 4200 MW Solar Rooftop systems in the country in next five years, said official sources.The capital subsidy of 30 per cent would be provided for general category States/UTs and 70 per cent for special category States i.e., North-Eastern States including Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the statement said. It also elaborated that there would be no subsidy for commercial and industrial establishments in the private sector since they are already laden with other benefit eligibility such as accelerated depreciation, custom duty concessions, excise duty exemptions and tax holiday.

This capacity of 4200 MWp is scheduled to be built up through the residential, Government, Social and institutional sector such as — hospitals and educational institutions. Industrial and commercial sector would be encouraged for installations without subsidy. The aim is to create a healthy market, build the confidence of the consumers and work towards enabling balance capacity through market mode. All this would be done with an objective of achieving the target of 40,000 MWp by 2022, the statement added.

Government has revised the target of National Solar Mission (NSM) from 20,000 MWp to 1,00,000 MWp, to be achieved by 2022.