Most subsidy articles are about money a customer might get in the future. This one is about money you have already earned and may still be able to collect, on jobs you finished a while ago and stopped thinking about.

MNRE has extended the deadline for submitting Central Financial Assistance claims under Phase II of the Grid Connected Rooftop Solar Programme to 30 November 2026. The previous deadline was 31 December 2025.

If you were installing residential rooftop before PM Surya Ghar took over, you probably have files in that category. Some of them are probably unclaimed.

Which programme are we talking about?

Not PM Surya Ghar. This is the older one.

Phase II of the Grid Connected Rooftop Solar Programme is the scheme that ran before PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana replaced it as the route for residential rooftop. Applications made under Phase II sit under Phase II rules, and Phase II has its own CFA rates and its own claim process.

Confusing the two is the most common reason an EPC concludes there is nothing to claim. The portal, the rates and the deadline are all different.

What Phase II actually pays

For residential consumers in general category states, CFA under Phase II is:

Rs 14,588 per kW for the first 3 kW of capacity
Rs 7,294 per kW for capacity beyond 3 kW and up to 10 kW

Expressed as a share, that is 40 percent of benchmark cost or the cost discovered through transparent bidding for the first 3 kW, and 20 percent for the slab above it.

For Group Housing Societies and Resident Welfare Associations, CFA is limited to 20 percent for plants supplying common facilities, at Rs 7,294 per kW in general category states. Eligible capacity is capped at 10 kW per house, up to a maximum of 500 kWp.

On a single 3 kW residential job that is roughly Rs 43,764. Across a stack of twenty forgotten files it stops being a rounding error.

Which of your files still qualify?

The reported condition is that applications under the Phase II programme which have reached the redeemed, inspected or installed stage remain eligible, provided the claim is received by 30 November 2026.

The amendment also revisited the treatment of applications that had been submitted but not installed as of 1 April 2025. Under the earlier position those were not eligible for CFA under Phase II, with the suggestion that such consumers apply afresh under PM Surya Ghar instead.

What to do about it this week

The work is clerical, which is why it does not get done. Treat it as a task with an owner and a date rather than something to look at when things are quiet.

Pull the list first

Export every Phase II application your firm ever submitted, not just the ones you remember as unfinished. Sort by stage. You are looking for anything sitting at redeemed, inspected or installed where no CFA has landed.

Separate the genuinely stalled from the merely unclaimed

These fail differently. A file stalled at inspection needs the DISCOM to do something. A file that is installed and inspected but never claimed needs nothing except somebody submitting it. The second category is free money and it is usually the larger one.

Check who the money goes to

Under Phase II the CFA route and the disbursement mechanics differ from PM Surya Ghar, where the subsidy is credited directly to the beneficiary's bank account after commissioning. Work out for each file whether you are chasing something owed to the customer or something owed to you, because that determines who has to sign what.

Call the customers you are about to file for

A homeowner who gets an unexpected bank credit two years after their installation, with no warning, calls their installer to ask what it is. A homeowner who was told last week that you were chasing it for them tells their neighbours instead.

The wider point about paperwork

Every EPC we talk to has some version of this problem. Not fraud, not incompetence, just files that reached ninety percent and then stopped because the person who was carrying them got busy with something that was going to close this month.

The cost is invisible until someone counts it. A deadline like this one is the rare occasion when it becomes countable.

The short version

Phase II CFA claims are reported to be due by 30 November 2026, extended from 31 December 2025.
Phase II is not PM Surya Ghar. Different scheme, different rates, different portal.
General category residential rates are Rs 14,588 per kW for the first 3 kW and Rs 7,294 per kW from 3 kW to 10 kW.
Files at redeemed, inspected or installed stage are the ones to look for.
Confirm the deadline against an official source before you act. We could not find the memorandum itself.

Sources

MNRE extends rooftop solar Phase II subsidy claim deadline to Nov 30, Saur Energy
MNRE extends subsidy claim deadline for legacy rooftop solar applications, Mercom India
Grid Connected Rooftop Solar Programme, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy
Guidelines for Phase II of the Grid Connected Rooftop Solar Programme, MNRE, as published by TANGEDCO