The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has amended the ‘incentive to local bodies’ component of the Implementation Guidelines under the PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana.

The National Programme Implementation Agency (NPIA) will disburse funds to the State Implementation Agencies (SIAs) according to the number of rooftop solar installations undertaken in their respective areas under the program.

The SIA will disburse the funds to local bodies within 60 days of receiving the funds from the NPIA.

Earlier, the Department of Panchayat and Rural Development (PRI) and the Department of Urban Administration and Development (ULB) had to upload their authorized account details on the National Portal.

Alternatively, existing authorized databases with the Ministry of Panchayati Raj (e-Gram Swaraj through API integration) and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, or their respective state counterparts, will be integrated to ensure the direct transfer of incentives to the accounts concerned.

MNRE amended the clause to eliminate any operational difficulties and simplify the process. The program component “incentive for local bodies” has an outlay of ₹10 billion (~$115.75 million).

NPIA will implement this component and ensure that the incentive against an installation under PM Surya Ghar is given to the concerned ULB/PRI only once.

The MNRE launched the PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana to install rooftop solar systems in 10 million households by 2027, empowering them to generate their own electricity.

With an outlay of ₹750.21 billion (~$8.9 billion), the program is set to be implemented until the fiscal year 2026-27. The Innovative Projects Component is designed to identify, fund, and support innovations in both business models and technical deployments of rooftop solar systems.

Recently, the ministry amended guidelines for implementing the Central Financial Assistance (CFA) component under PM Surya Ghar.

Under the amendments, the state or union territory government can supplement the CFA provided by the central government with an additional subsidy for rooftop systems. Additional state and union territory subsidies should be updated on the national portal.