New Delhi: A parliamentary panel has urged the government to review the PM-KUSUM scheme, given its poor implementation on the ground. A Standing Committee on Energy said that the targets under the different components of the scheme could not be achieved and hence the timeline has been extended until March 2026. “The Ministry has stated that the reasons for slow progress under the scheme include lack of financing to farmers under Component-A, delay in tendering process and lack of interest by States under Component-B and lack of interest by farmers in indvidual pump solarization under Component-C,” said the committee in it Demand for Grants (2024-25) report for the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. It also urged the ministry to revisit how various components of the scheme have been structured.
The panel said that Component-A of PM-KUSUM scheme should be revisited by the MNRE “as the investment required to setup a 2 MW solar power plant is around Rs 9 crore which is huge by all means, especially for marginal and small farmers. Further, there is no subsidy on this component.”
With regard to Component-B, the subsidy from the government is available for only upto 7.5 Horsepower (HP) solar pumps, which is proving to be insufficient for farmers, as has been reported by PSU Watch earlier. “Given the fact that many districts of India has become waterdeficient, 7.5 HP pump capacity is not suitable for all regions. Therefore, the Ministry may conduct a detailed study to understand the ground situation and accordingly modify the component,” said the panel in its report.
“With regard to Component-C, only around 37 thousand pumps have been solarised even though more than 33 lakh pumps have been sanctioned. Therefore, the Ministry may see to it that long gestation period of more than 18 months is reduced and the sanctioned pumps actually reach the farmers on time,” said the panel.
The PM-KUSUM Scheme was launched in March 2019 to provide financial support to the farmers for installation of standalone solar pumps, solarisation of existing grid-connected agriculture pumps and also to provide the farmers an opportunity to become solar entrepreneurs by installing solar power plants on their barren/fallow agriculture land.
The standing committee observed budgetary mismanagement under the National Bionenergy Programme, whereby the allocation has been reduced at revised stage over the years. “The reduction is significant in 2023-24 when the estimated amount of Rs 381.85 crore was reduced by a huge 80 percent to only Rs 75 crore at revised stage. Even after this huge reduction, the entire amount was not utilised. Under-utilization has also been a persistent issue under this programme,” said the panel in its report.
“The Committee, therefore, would like to recommend prioritization of this much needed programme and timely disbursement of the subsidy to encourage private developers to invest and develop Bioenergy sector. The Committee note that the increased prices of construction materials is proving costly for developing biogas plants in rural areas. The Committee feel that a part of the subsidy may be given in advance to encourage biogas development in rural areas,” it said.
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