Thursday, July 18, 2013: Parkash Singh Badal, the chief minister of Punjab has requested Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister to restore the 80 per cent subsidy that was initially decided for solar pumps. In a letter to the PM this Tuesday, Badal said that 80 per cent subsidy was being provided by the MNRE (Ministry of New and Renewable Energy) on water pumps to be used by farmers. At that time, it was Punjab that achieved the highest installation target amounting to 1,850 pumps. However, with the subsidy being reduced to 30 per cent of the installation cost, farmers are finding it harder to balance the requirement. This subsidy cut had been functional since 2004-2005.
The approximate cost of a solar powered water pump comes to Rs. 450,000 and with the present subsidy rate of 30 per cent, farmers will have to spend more than Rs 300,000 for an installation, i.e. 70 per cent of the cost.
This has been discouraging farmers to go for renewable energy solution and quite obviously is not a very viable proposition. Badal want the Prime Minister to directly intervene into the situation and review the change in subsidy values. He wants the ministry to restore the subsidy amount to 80 per cent from the central ministry, further 10 per cent would be borne by the state and the rest 10 per cent will be given by the beneficiary.
According to the CM, Punjab has more than a million pumps and the total power consumed is 25 per cent of the total electricity consumption for the state.
