(FE)
After the completion of 100% household electrification through the Saubhagya scheme, the government is now exploring ways to increase the usage of electricity for cooking. Apart from reducing emissions, electricity-based cooking is also seen to reduce the country’s import dependency for energy. Experts are also banking on rising solar generation capacity to completely replace kerosene as a source of cooking fuel.
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has requested the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) to divert a part of the cooking gas and kerosene subsidy (around Rs 25,000 crore/year) towards solar photovolataic (PV) cooking. “We have no such mechanism to transfer subsidy amount towards solar cooking,” a senior MoPNG official told FE. The MNRE proposed that out of the Rs 50,000 required to install solar PV cooking systems in a household, the MoPNG could pay `20,000 as subsidy, while the rest could be mobilised through bank loans. The petroleum ministry is understood to have given its comments to MNRE on this issue.
