While enunciating the approach of government towards an all-round, all-pervasive and all-inclusive (सर्वांगीण, सर्वस्पर्शी और सर्वसमावेशी) development, the Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, announced a slew of measures for the promotion of  green growth and renewable energy, while tabling the Interim Budget 2024-2025 in Parliament today.

Rooftop solarization and muftbijli

Finance Minister said that through rooftop solarization, one crore households will be enabled to obtain up to 300 units free electricity every month. This scheme follows the resolve of Prime Minister on the historic day of consecration of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. The benefits expected from this are as follows:

1. Savings up to fifteen to eighteen thousand rupees annually for households from free solar electricity and selling the surplus to the distribution companies;
2. Charging of electric vehicles;
3. Entrepreneurship opportunities for a large number of vendors for supply and installation;
4. Employment opportunities for the youth with technical skills in manufacturing, installation and maintenance;

Green Energy

With the aim of meeting the commitment of ‘net-zero’ by 2070, Smt. Sitharaman proposed the following measures in the Interim Budget 2024-25:

1. Viability gap funding to be provided for harnessing offshore wind energy potential for initial capacity of one giga-watt.
2. Coal gasification and liquefaction capacity of 100 MT to be set up by 2030. This will also help in reducing imports of natural gas, methanol, and ammonia. 
3. Phased mandatory blending of Compressed Bio Gas (CBG) in Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) for transport and Piped Natural Gas (PNG) for domestic purposes to be mandated.
4. Financial assistance to be provided for procurement of biomass aggregation machinery to support collection.

Electric Vehicle Ecosystem

“Our Government will expand and strengthen the e-vehicle ecosystem by supporting manufacturing and charging infrastructure”, Finance Minister said while announcing that greater adoption of e-buses for public transport networks will be encouraged through payment security mechanism.

Bio-manufacturing and Bio-foundry

For promoting the green growth, Smt. Sitharaman proposed a new scheme of
bio-manufacturing and bio-foundry which will provide environment friendly alternatives such as biodegradable polymers, bio-plastics, bio-pharmaceuticals and bio-agri-inputs. “This scheme will also help in transforming today’s consumptive manufacturing paradigm to the one based on regenerative principles”, she added.

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