Nearly 18.94 lakh households across the country have reported receiving zero electricity bills after installing rooftop solar systems under the PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana, the government informed Parliament on Wednesday.
In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) said the zero electricity bills were reported by distribution companies (DISCOMs) and depend on consumers’ self-consumption of electricity during a billing cycle.
Among the states, Maharashtra recorded the highest number of beneficiaries, with 4,17,707 consumers reporting zero electricity bills. Gujarat followed with more than 4.16 lakh beneficiaries across its DISCOMs, while Kerala reported 1,91,882, Uttar Pradesh over 1.75 lakh, Rajasthan more than 1.68 lakh, Madhya Pradesh over 1.10 lakh, Odisha around 37,678, and Chhattisgarh 16,472 beneficiaries.
The ministry said that, as of July 24, 2026, a total of 40,07,355 rooftop solar systems had been installed under the scheme, benefiting 48,21,986 households nationwide. More than 35.97 lakh of these installations fall under the above 3 kWp category, accounting for the largest share of rooftop solar systems installed.
The government also told Parliament that the pace of implementation has accelerated significantly. While it initially took several months to complete rooftop solar installations for the first one lakh households, the same number of installations is now being achieved in about seven days.
To expedite implementation and meet the target of installing rooftop solar systems in one crore households by FY2026-27, the ministry said it has introduced several measures, including waiving technical feasibility requirements in certain cases, enabling automatic load enhancement up to 10 kW, integrating the net-metering agreement into the National Portal, facilitating collateral-free concessional loans, expanding vendor registration and strengthening coordination with state DISCOMs.
The ministry added that regular monitoring, regional review meetings, awareness campaigns and a dedicated grievance redressal mechanism are also being used to support faster implementation of the scheme across the country.
(With ANI inputs)
