Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2017-03-21

Provision of interest Concession on loans for electricity consumers for installing Rooftop Solar PV Systems

- A proposal was made in the Budget Proposals - 2017 to introduce a concessionary rate loan scheme to the households with a monthly electricity bill of over Rs.2,000/- to encourage them to transfer over to Solar Energy. However, since the monthly electricity bills of around 40% of the electricity consumers in the country are below Rs.300/-, the proposal made by Hon. Ranjith Siyambalapitiya, the Minister of Power and Renewable Energy to provide the interest concession to all household consumers who obtain loans from any government or private bank, without limiting it only to householders with monthly bills of over Rs.2,000/- as planned earlier, and to increase the proposed loan amount from Rs.150,000/- up to Rs.350,000/- for the purpose of implementing the plan more effectively, was approved by the Cabinet.