Solar Loan & PM Surya Ghar EMI Calculator

How the PM Surya Ghar subsidy is actually calculated

Most pages tell you the subsidy is “₹30,000 for 1 KW, ₹60,000 for 2 KW, ₹78,000 for 3 KW and above.” That is correct, but it leaves out the part that confuses almost everybody: most real rooftop systems are not a whole number of kilowatts.

Solar panels come in fixed wattages, so your actual system size is whatever the panel combination adds up to. Six 580-watt panels is 3.48 KW. Four 540-watt panels is 2.16 KW. Almost nobody ends up with exactly 2 or exactly 3.

The PM Surya Ghar portal does not round these figures up or down. It pays on an exact pro-rata basis, using three simple slabs:

• Up to 2 KW — ₹30,000 per KW
• From 2 KW to 3 KW — ₹18,000 per extra KW
• Above 3 KW — nothing further; ₹78,000 is the ceiling

So a 2.16 KW system works out like this:

2 KW × ₹30,000 = ₹60,000
0.16 KW × ₹18,000 = ₹2,880
Total subsidy = ₹62,880

Subsidy for common real system sizes

Notice that everything from 3 KW upward receives the same ₹78,000. Going from 3.48 KW to 4.96 KW gets you more electricity, but not one rupee more subsidy.

Your EMI does not change — your loan ends sooner

The subsidy only arrives after your system is installed and your net meter has been commissioned and inspected. In practice that is commonly ~45 to 90 days after installation. Bank of India's own process document allows roughly 30 days from the subsidy claim being submitted to the money landing — and that is on top of the installation and inspection timeline before it.

Until then you pay the full original EMI. Once the subsidy is credited it goes into your loan account as a part-prepayment — it comes straight off the principal you still owe, rather than landing in your savings account.

Your EMI itself does not change. What changes is the end date: you carry on paying the same instalment, and because the subsidy has already come off the principal, the loan runs out of balance to repay and closes earlier than it otherwise would. That works in your favour — you stop paying interest sooner.

This is why the EMI shown by the calculator above is the full one — what you pay from day one, and what you keep paying right through to the end of the loan. The subsidy is shown as its own figure beside it, because it arrives separately and months later, and it shortens the loan rather than changing the instalment.

The subsidy is never counted as your down payment

People often assume the subsidy can cover their margin money, so they won't need much cash upfront. It cannot. UCO Bank puts it bluntly in their documentation: “Subsidy will not be treated as margin.”

You must arrange the full down payment yourself, before the loan is disbursed. The subsidy arrives months later and reduces what you owe — it does not reduce what you need on day one.

The ₹2 lakh line — the most important number in your loan

If you remember one thing from this page, make it this one. There is a hard threshold at a loan amount of ₹2,00,000, and crossing it changes two things at once, both against you.

What that actually costs you

Take a system quoted at ₹2,60,000, on a 10-year loan from SBI. Two ways to structure it:

Borrow ₹2,08,000 (pay ₹52,000 down, the 20% minimum)
Rate ~7.90% → EMI ~₹2,513

Borrow ₹2,00,000 (pay ₹60,000 down)
Rate ~5.75% → EMI ~₹2,195

Paying ₹8,000 more upfront lowers the EMI by about ₹317 every month. Over ten years that is roughly ₹38,000 less paid to the bank — for ₹8,000 found once. (Both figures are before the subsidy is credited, so they compare fairly.)

This is not a theoretical trick. In real applications, customers regularly pay a large amount out of pocket specifically to keep the loan under ₹2,00,000 — including cases of someone putting well over ₹1,50,000 cash into a system so the loan lands just below the line.

If your loan amount comes out just above ₹2,00,000, try lowering it to exactly ₹2,00,000 in the calculator above and compare. It is very often worth finding the difference.

Banks offering PM Surya Ghar solar loans in West Bengal

These are the banks this calculator covers, with the rates it uses. All of them lend on a reducing-balance basis over a 10-year (120 month) tenure, and every one of them caps the loan at ₹6,00,000.

Notice how far apart the two columns are. Below ₹2 lakh every bank here charges the same ~5.75%, so under that line the bank you pick makes no difference at all. Above ₹2 lakh the same list runs from ~7.50% to ~9.50% — Union Bank of India charges the most there and Punjab National Bank the least, a gap wide enough to be worth checking before you apply.

Rates move. Always confirm the current figure with the branch before you commit.

Frequently asked questions