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December 31, 2005
India provides bank loan for solar water heaters
THE HINDU: As part of its basket of loans to popularise renewable energy, Canara Bank has introduced a scheme for financing solar water heaters at concessional rates of interest.
The Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources, Government of India will bear the cost of interest subsidy. The rate of interest for individuals would be 2 per cent, for institutional users like colleges and hostels it would be 3 per cent and for commercial and industrial users, including Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) it would be at 5 per cent.
The loan amount will be 85 percent of the project cost with repayments spread over five years of monthly instalments. There is no upper ceiling for the loans, which are available for purchase of Flat Plate Collector Based Systems as well as Evacuated Tube Collector Based Systems.
This scheme would be extremely useful for households, hotels, hospitals, small scale units, medium enterprises, sugar mills, milk processing plants, food processing units, wherever heating of water is involved.
In units with small boilers using furnace oil or electrical energy, solar energy could bring down power cost by 40 to 50 per cent.
Income Tax paying SMEs and commercial establishments would be able to claim accelerated depreciation to the extent of 80 percent of the investment, under Section 32 of the Income Tax Act.
Posted by admin at December 31, 2005 05:22 PM