The government on Wednesday approved raising of Rs 23.6 billion through bonds for renewable energy projects in the current fiscal.
The bonds will be raised by the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) through the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) during the 2017-18.
The funds raised would be used by MNRE for the approved programmes and schemes for solar park, green energy corridor, generation based incentives for wind projects, PSUs and defence solar projects, viability gap funding for solar projects, roof-top solar, grid-distributed and decentralised renewable power, investment in corporations and autonomous bodies among others.
The government had declared additional finance mobilisation of Rs 313 billion bonds through NHAI, PFC, REC, IREDA and IWAI in the budget for FY 2016-17. As a part of this, the government had allocated Rs 40 billion to IREDA to raise.
“GoI fully serviced taxable Bonds” on behalf of the MNRE during the FY 2016-17. Out of this allocation, IREDA had raised Rs 16.4 billion as per the requirement of MNRE. The MNRE subsequently approached the Cabinet to approve raising of the balance Rs 23.6 billion.
By Baishakhi Dutta
