Punjab Government mulls solar power for agriculture sector to contain subsidy bill
Ruchika M Khanna
Chandigarh, July 24
The Punjab Government has proposed to keep the power subsidy bill in the state static at Rs 21,909 crore for next five years and this will be done by shifting agriculture pump-sets from thermal to solar power.
The proposal has been made before the 16th Finance Commission, whose visit to the state ended today, confirmed Finance Minister Harpal Cheema. The state government has proposed that the 3-4 per cent increase in power cost and a similar increase in power consumption will be absorbed as the state shifts to using renewable power for running the pump-sets.
The proposal of solarisation of pump-sets will be started on either 350 agriculture feeders or on 75,000 pump-sets. Once implemented, the power subsidy bill will go down by Rs 275 crore. Once 1,500 agriculture feeders go on solar power, the subsidy bill will go down by Rs 1,200 crore
Enquiries made by The Tribune revealed that the Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA) has been tasked to make a proposal for individual solarisation of agriculture feeders. Under the PM KUSUM scheme, individual farmers or a group of farmers can set up their own renewable energy plants having capacity of 500 MW to 2 KW. Punjab is making the broader guidelines for starting the scheme, where the Centre gives a 30 per cent subsidy.
It is perhaps because of this proposal that the Finance Commission chairman Dr Arvind Panagariya had remarked on Monday that the burgeoning power subsidy was Punjab’s own issue. However, during their visit to neighbouring hill state of Himachal Pradesh, the commission had asked them to reduce their power subsidy, following which the Himachal Pradesh Government had withdrawn the subsidy to the income tax paying consumers.
To encourage industrial growth, Punjab has sought a tax holiday on the lines of tax holiday given to neighbouring hill states by the previous Congress government. “This will help in industrialisation in Tarn Taran, Gurdaspur, Fazilka and Ferozepur, and also help in controlling narco-terrorism from across the border,” said Cheema.
