Make 'serious effort' to achieve target, Par panel tells MNRE

A parliamentary panel has asked the New and Renewable Energy Ministry to make "serious effort" to achieve renewable energy addition target of about 30 GW during the 12th Five-Year Plan (by March 2017).
"The ministry should make a serious effort for achievement of physical targets of the 12th Plan with maximum utilisation of allocated funds... So that the cascading effect... Will not spill over to the next Plan," Parliamentary Standing Committee on Energy said in its report tabled in Parliament today.
The committee noted that the budgetary allocation for the entire 12th Plan (2012-17) was Rs 19,113 crore against which Rs 9,653.9 crore has been actually allocated during the first four years of the Plan period. This means 49 per cent of the allocation is still left for utilisation in the terminal year of 12th Plan (2016-17).

It also noted that the total actual expenditure of the first four years of the Plan period as on March 28, 2016, was Rs 9,326 crore, which accounts for only 49 per cent of the Gross Budgetary Support allocation for the 12th Plan.
The panel held that as four years of the Plan period are over, the ministry is expected to utilise at least 80 per cent or a major portion of the total budget allocation for the 12th Plan.
It also observed that "against the target of 29,800 MW grid power capacity for the 12th Plan, 14,999.11 MW has been achieved, which is 50 per cent of the Plan target".

Noting that the ministry has set an ambitious target of 175 GW renewable energy capacity by 2022, the panel asked it to "revisit its policies and programmes under various renewable energy resources".

The committee also suggested that the ministry should make concerted efforts to mobilise additional funds from internal and extra budgetary (IEBR) resources, the national clean energy fund and other development fund to achieve the targets set for the current financial year under various renewable energy programmes.
It also said the ministry should spare no effort to achieve the physical target of 4,100 MW wind energy capacity for 2016-17.

The panel made a point that the ministry should ensure implementation of solar energy projects is not affected due to lack of adequate financial resources.