Union Budget 2023 – India Hiked Budgetary Allocation for Nuclear Power by 43%
Faster deployment of clean energy technologies including nuclear, renewables, green hydrogen and EVs is a high priority mission of the Government of India. Year after year government and the implementing nodal organizations are coming out with significant initiatives to address bottleneck issues to meet their short, medium and long term objectives.
Emphasizing upon its commitment to nuclear, government announced a provision of INR 222.73 Bn (USD 2.72 Bn) for Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) for the financial year 2023-24 to ramp the nuclear capacity. These provisions includes a budget allocation of INR 94.1 Bn (USD 1.15 Bn), which is an increase of 43% over the previous year’s figures. Apart from the government’s budgetary support, NPCIL will raise INR 128.63 Bn (USD 1.57 Bn) through its internal reserves, equity and loans in the fiscal year 2023-24 to meet the fund requirement for new nuclear capacity addition.
Overall budget allocations for the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) is INR 250.79 Bn (USD 3.1 Bn), which apart from NPCIL’s allocation includes INR 2 Bn (USD 24.4 Mn) for BHAVINI engaged in deployment of 500 MW fast breeder reactor, INR 1.2 Bn (USD 14.7 Mn) for Indian Rare Earths Ltd, INR 598.2 Mn (INR 7.3 Mn) for Uranium Corporation of India Ltd, INR 150 Mn (USD 1.83 Mn) for Electronics Corporation of India Ltd. To improve fuel supply for Fast breeder reactor program, government made an allocation of INR 8.05 Bn (USD 98 Mn) for spent fuel reprocessing.
Ministry of New and Renewable Energy overseeing the deployment of solar, wind and other RE programs in the country has been allocated INR 102.2 Bn (USD 1.25 Bn). This includes INR 53.31 Bn (INR 650.1 Mn) for solar power on grid and off-grid projects while wind and other REs received INR 12.45 Bn (USD 151.8 Mn). Union cabinet of India has already approved an outlay of INR 197.44 Bn (USD 2.41 Bn) for National Hydrogen Mission, which includes INR 170 Bn (INR 2.1 Bn) worth incentives to be used got electrolyser and clean hydrogen manufacturing in the country. The target of the country is to develop an annual capacity of 5MMT by 2030. Viability gap funding will be utilized to support battery energy storage systems with capacity of 4,000 MWh.
A sum of INR 350 Bn (INR 4.27 Bn) has also been announced for clean energy transition and energy security by the India’s ministry of petroleum and natural gas. The government is also making efforts to raise funds by selling sovereign green bonds. The INR 80 Bn (USD 975 Mn) raised through this mechanism was at yields 5-6 basis points below other government securities.
Nuclear Business Platform recently published the 2023 edition of the India Nuclear Industry Report which was first launched in 2019 to gain insights and perspectives on nuclear energy developments in India. The report summarizes the key discussions and takeaways from India Nuclear Business Platform meeting held in December 2022 which was officially supported by the state owned nuclear power utility ‘Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited’ (NPCIL). This 60-page report is extremely pertinent for all those currently involved in or planning to pursue the burgeoning Indian nuclear market. The full report can be downloaded here
