Text of PM’s address at the webinar for effective implementation of Union Budget in power sector

Hello colleagues,

The country’s energy sector has a big role to play in India’s progress. This is a sector which is connected to both Ease of Living and Ease of Doing Business. Today, when the country is moving ahead with the goal of self-reliant India, the energy sector, our power sector, Renewable Energy has a very big role in it. In order to speed up these sectors, many of you have been consulted before the budget, there has been discussion. You have also tried to connect your suggestions with all these things.

Now the budget has been more than 15 days. The nuances that are related to the budget, are related to your sector, you have analyzed it very closely. Where there is going to be a loss, where is it going to benefit, what are the ways to gain extra; You must have discovered everything. And your advisors too must have done that work by working very hard. Now, this dialogue was necessary in order to decide the way forward, how the government and you together, how to implement the budget announcements fast, how the government and the private sector should move forward by increasing trust in each other.

Colleagues,

Our government’s approach to the energy sector has always been very holistic. When our government was formed in 2014, you know very well what was happening in the power sector. What was the status of the distribution companies related to this, I believe that I do not need to describe it. In this sector, we have continuously tried to formulate policies and improve the policies keeping in mind the interests of both consumers and entrepreneurs. The four mantras we carried in the power sector are Reach, Reinforce, Reforms and Renewable energy.

Colleagues,

As far as Reach is concerned, we first insisted on providing electricity to every village in the country and then to every house and put full power, we turned the entire system to that. With the arrival of electricity, a new world was found for such people. Who were living without electricity even in the 21st century.

If we talk about reinforcing its capacity, today India has become a power surplus country from a power deficit country. In the last few years, we have added 139 GHz watts capacity. India has also achieved its goal of “One-Nation, One Grid – One Frequency”. All this was not possible without reforms. Under the UDAY scheme, we issued bonds worth Rs 2 lakh 32 thousand crore. This encouraged financial and operational efficiencies in the power sector. The infrastructure investment trust – Invit has been set up to monetise the assets of the power grid and will be opened to investors shortly.

Colleagues,

There is a lot of focus on renewable energy to meet the needs of electricity. In the last 6 years, we have increased the renewable energy capacity more than two and a half times. Meanwhile, India’s solar energy capacity has been increased about 15 times. Today, India is also leading the world through the International Solar Alliance.

Colleagues,

Considering the needs of the 21st century, this year’s budget has also shown a commitment for unprecedented investment on its infrastructure. Whether it is the introduction of mission hydrogen, domestic manufacturing of solar cells or large scale capital infusion in the renewable energy sector; India is emphasizing on every field. The demand for solar sales in our country for the next 10 years is 12 times more than our manufacturing capacity today. What a huge market is waiting for us. You can understand how big are the needs of the country and how big is the opportunity for you.

We do not just want to see our companies in this field fulfilling the needs of the country but also turning them into global manufacturing champions. The government has linked ‘High Efficiency Solar PV Modules’ to PLI schemes and is committed to invest more than Rs 4500 crore on it. These investments will help in developing Giga watt level Solar PV manufacturing facilities in India. The PLI scheme has a positive track record of success in the country. Now as we linked mobile manufacturing with this scheme, we started seeing a lot of response immediately. Now similar response is expected for ‘High Efficiency Solar PV Modules’.

Under the PLI scheme, integrated solar PV manufacturing plants with a capacity of 10 thousand MW will be built and an investment of about 14 thousand crores is set to be invested on them. The government estimates that this will create demand of more than 17 thousand 500 crores in the coming 5 years. This demand will play a big role in accelerating the development of the entire ecosystem of Solar PV manufacturing.

Colleagues,         

To increase investment in the RE sector, the government has committed to additional capital infusion of one thousand crore rupees in Solar Energy Corporation of India. Similarly, additional investment of Rs 1500 crores will be made in Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency. This is also a big step.

Colleagues,

In order to improve Ease of Doing Business in the power sector, the government has also launched a campaign to improve regulatory and process framework. We have a different view of how the power sector was viewed earlier. All the reforms being done today are treating power as a sector in itself rather than considering it as a part of the industry sector.

The power sector is often seen as a support system of the industrial sector. Whereas electricity itself is important and this importance is not only due to industries. This is the reason that today so much attention is being given to the availability of electricity for the common people.

The effect of the government’s policies is that today India’s power demand has reached a record level! We are engaged in removing the problems of power supply and distribution segment across the country. For this, necessary policy and regulatory framework related to DISCOMS are going to be made. We believe that consumers should get electricity in the same way as other retail items.

We are working to reduce the entry barriers in the distribution sector and to make the distribution and supply of electricity license free. The government is also working on plans to help DISCOMs from infrastructure related to the upgrade of prepaid smart meters and feeder separation systems.

Colleagues,

Solar energy costs very little in India. Due to this, people are also accepting solar energy more easily. The PM KUSUM scheme is making Annadata energetic. Through this scheme, the goal is to create 30 GW solar capacity by installing small power plants in the fields of the farmers. So far, we have installed around 4 GW of Rooftop Solar energy and about 2.5 GW of capacity will be added soon. In the next 1 year and a half, 40 GW of solar energy is targeted to be generated only by Rooftop Solar Projects.

Colleagues,

In the coming days, the campaign to improve, strengthen and strengthen the power sector will be further intensified. 

Our efforts are strengthened by your suggestions. Today the power sector of the country is embarking on a new journey with new energy. You too become a partner in this journey. You lead it

I hope that today this webinar will provide important suggestions by all the experts. I also believe that your valuable suggestions will help the government in implementing the announcements related to the budget, and this is the time when the whole government team has to work very hard before the budget, many aspects have to be looked at, much consultation Happens, then comes the budget. But immediately after the budget such a big exercise, I think it will be more fruitful than that, it will be more important than that. And so it would have been better if it had been so, it would have been better if it had been done; That time is over. We have to implement that at a fast pace. Now we have budgeted a month ago. Prepone a month means that I have to run the economic system of the country a month in advance.

We see, especially for infrastructure, this time is very valuable because we have a budget in April and after that if we start discussion, then the month of May gets out. From May end, rain starts in our country and all the infrastructure work hangs for three months. In such a situation, if we start work from April 1, then we get a lot of time for infrastructure work from April-May-June; July – August – September are rainy days; Then we can move at a faster pace. To make the best use of time, we are going ahead by prepone one month.

All your colleagues, who are stakeholders, take advantage of this, as much as you can, the government wants to walk with you completely, wants to go one step ahead. You come forward, take concrete suggestions for your concrete implementation, come forward, my whole team will discuss with you, discuss in detail and together we go to fulfill the dreams of the country. With these wishes, I would like the webinar to be very successful, very focussed. Implementation- My focus area is implementation. Put emphasis on it.

Thanks a lot.