The budget for the year 2018 comes up with a solar power pump scheme to improve the income of farmers and reduce the dependence on diesel pumps which totally accounts for the investment of Rs 1.4 trillion.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley said that numerous of farmers are installing solar water pumps to irrigate their fields for proper crops, Government of India will take several measures and encourage state governments to put in place a that their surplus solar power is purchased by the distribution companies.
30% of the subsidy would be provided by the Union government and the same 30% would come from the respective states.
As per sources, it has been claimed that around 30 million agricultural pumps, a third of it are powered by diesel in India.
The scheme would also help improve the health of discoms. In few of the states the electricity supply to the agriculture sector is heavily subsidized, the complete subsidy amount is not credited to the discoms. This in return has led to weak financial states.
The minister added that the launch of KUSUM scheme will not only help meet the electricity needs as the necessity for the farmers but will also “empower’ them by providing them with more efficient and equipped means for farming.
The International Solar Alliance is working towards aggregating the demand for solar-powered agricultural pumps from member-nations and then looking for a call for tenders to bring down the costs so that it comes at a reasonable cost.
The current year budget comes up with a lot for betterment for people as the government is pushing up steps such as direct benefit transfer (DBT) for better targeting of subsidies, and separation of wire and supply operations.
To take a strong step towards reducing losses and improving more of efficiency the Union and state government will be collaboratively working for 100% metering and doing away with any human interface in consumer-facing functions which in turn would add to the improvement of the nation.