Coal cess fund yet to light up clean energy projects

Cess pool has collected Rs 54,000 cr since 2011-12 but only half has been transferred to the NCEF

The effort of the Centre to financially support clean energy initiatives by imposing a cess on coal producers seems to have failed. 

The cess pool has collected Rs 54,000 crore since 2011-12 but only half has been transferred to the National Clean Energy Fund (NCEF), and barely Rs 9,000 crore has been used to “finance clean energy projects”. NCEF was renamed Clean Environment Fund in last year’s Budget.

A major share of the NCEF fund went as “budgetary allocation” to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE). The amount of Budget grant to the MNRE was Rs 1,977 crore in 2014-15;