Assistance for Energy and Water Conservation under Motivation of Entrepreneurs to Start Industries and Fiscal Assistance to Industries

What is Assistance for Energy and Water Conservation?

Assistance for Energy and Water Conservation is a component of "Motivation of Entrepreneurs to Start Industries and Fiscal Assistance to Industries; Various Incentives", the incentive package of the Industries and Commerce Department, Union Territory of Puducherry. The package was framed under the New Industrial Policy 2016, and this set of incentives came into force with effect from 1 April 2017 across the whole Union Territory.

Under this component, 50 per cent of the fees paid to a recognised institution or consultant for conducting an energy or water audit is reimbursed, subject to a limit of Rs 25,000.

This is the smallest incentive in the Puducherry package by ceiling, and it is deliberately structured as an outcome-linked benefit rather than a simple cost share. A unit does not qualify merely by commissioning an audit. The incentives order requires that the unit should have achieved a saving in energy or water of a minimum of 10 per cent of the average monthly consumption of the previous 12 months before the conduct of the audit. In other words, the department pays for the audit only where the audit led to a measurable reduction.

Who is eligible for this assistance?

Your unit can claim if:

• Your unit is a micro, small, medium or large industry in the Union Territory of Puducherry.
• The investment was made on or after 1 April 2017.
• The audit was conducted in the unit by a recognised institution or consultant.
• The unit has achieved a saving in energy or water of at least 10 per cent of the average monthly consumption of the previous 12 months before the audit was conducted.
• Your unit gives at least 60 per cent of its total employment to people of the Union Territory of Puducherry, and maintains that share for the period stated in the affidavit filed with the claim.
• You undertake not to transfer or dispose of the fixed assets, including plant and machinery, until five years from the date of submitting the application or of disbursement, whichever is later.

Additional investments made after the first claim are also eligible for subsidy up to the ceiling limit.

You are not eligible, and cannot apply, if:

• No saving was achieved, or the saving is below 10 per cent of the earlier average monthly consumption. This is the condition that most often keeps an otherwise valid claim out.
• The audit was carried out internally or by someone who is not a recognised institution or consultant.
• You cannot produce 12 months of consumption records from before the audit, which makes the baseline impossible to establish.
• Your unit's local employment is below 60 per cent of total strength.
• You are a household, a commercial establishment or an individual rather than an industrial unit. There is no domestic energy or water audit benefit under this component.
• The claim is filed after the one-year window described below.

Where two or more industrial undertakings are set up by the same proprietor, by common partners or by a common board of directors or shareholders, the department treats them as separate entities for subsidy, provided their locations are different and their licences, clearances and registrations are held separately.

How much is reimbursed and how?

Where the unit is financed by a bank or financial institution, the reimbursement is disbursed through that institution only and adjusted against the loan or applied to additional fixed assets or working capital. A self-financed unit is paid directly. "Financial institution" includes PIPDIC, any other government corporation, and scheduled banks including co-operative banks.

What documents are required?

How to apply for Assistance for Energy and Water Conservation

1. Collect your consumption baseline before the audit. Pull together electricity or water bills for the 12 months preceding the audit and work out the average monthly consumption. Everything in this claim is measured against that number.
2. Commission the audit from a recognised institution or consultant, and keep the engagement letter, the audit report and the fee invoice with proof of payment from the unit's account.
3. Implement the audit's recommendations and record the result. Keep the bills for the months after implementation, because the claim requires proof of a saving of at least 10 per cent of the earlier average monthly consumption.
4. Download the common application form for subsidies from industry.py.gov.in/common-application-subsidies, fill in every mandatory field, and attach self-attested copies of the audit report, fee invoice, both sets of consumption records, the unit's registration and the local-employment affidavit.
5. Submit the signed application to the Directorate of Industries and Commerce, Industrial Estate, Thattanchavady, Puducherry 605009, or to the regional office at Kottucherry in Karaikal, or the Civil Station offices at Yanam and Mahe.
6. Ask for a receipt or acknowledgement with the date and time of submission and a reference number.

What happens after you apply?

Applications are scrutinised by the Directorate of Industries on merit to work out the amount admissible, and are then placed before the State Level Committee, which decides whether the unit qualifies and recommends the quantum. Because the ceiling here is Rs 25,000, the sums are small and the scrutiny turns almost entirely on the consumption evidence rather than on financial capacity.

By when must the claim be filed?

• New units, within one year of obtaining Entrepreneurs Memorandum Part-II, permanent registration, or the commencement of production certificate.
• Existing units: within one year of completing expansion, diversification or modernisation.

Common reasons claims are rejected

• Saving below 10 per cent, or no post-audit consumption data at all.
• Baseline not established because pre-audit bills for the full 12 months are missing.
• Auditor not a recognised institution or consultant.
• Fee invoice not in the unit's name or not supported by payment proof.
• Local employment below 60 per cent, or affidavit not filed.
• Claim filed after the one-year window.

A note on what is published

The Industries and Commerce Department publishes the rate, ceiling, auditor requirement and the 10 per cent saving condition for this component in its incentives government order, and those are the figures used above. The department does not publish a separate list of approved auditors or a worked example of how the saving is to be computed for a unit whose production volume changed during the period. Confirm both points with the Directorate before commissioning an audit purely to claim this reimbursement; at a ceiling of Rs 25,000, the incentive is best treated as a partial offset on an audit you were going to do anyway.

Related incentives worth claiming together

A unit doing an energy or water audit is often modernising at the same time, and the wider package supports that: capital investment subsidy on land, building, plant and machinery, a power subsidy reimbursing 50 paise per unit of fixed power cost for five to seven years, subsidy to pollution control equipment at 25 per cent up to Rs 5 lakh, generator subsidy at 50 per cent up to Rs 5 lakh, quality certification subsidy at 50 per cent up to Rs 2 lakh, and technology acquisition assistance at 50 per cent up to Rs 10 lakh.

Help and grievance redressal

• Directorate of Industries and Commerce, Industrial Estate, Thattanchavady, Puducherry 605009 — +91-413-2248476, 2248168, 2248320
• Karaikal, +91-4368-265438; Yanam, +91-884-2321257; Mahe: +91-490-233235
• Grievance redressal, industry.py.gov.in/grievance-redressal-mechanism

How to check your application status

This claim is filed offline, so there is no online tracking dashboard for it on the Directorate of Industries and Commerce portal. Status has to be followed up directly with the office where the papers were lodged.

• Keep the acknowledgement safe. The receipt or acknowledgement collected at submission carries the date, time and reference number of your claim. Quote this number in every follow-up, whether by phone, in writing or in person, since the Directorate tracks files by this reference rather than by the applicant's name alone.
• Call the office that received the claim. Units in Puducherry town can call the Directorate of Industries and Commerce at +91-413-2248476, 2248168 or 2248320. Claims lodged at the regional offices should be followed up with Karaikal (+91-4368-265438), Yanam (+91-884-2321257) or Mahe (+91-490-233235), since a file stays with the office it was submitted to until it is placed before the State Level Committee.
• Ask specifically where the file stands: whether it is still being scrutinised by the Directorate for the admissible amount, whether it has been listed for the State Level Committee, or whether the Committee has already taken a decision and disbursement is pending.
• Visit in person if the phone lines are unhelpful. Because the amount involved is small (capped at Rs 25,000), files of this kind are not always tracked with priority; a visit to the Industrial Estate office at Thattanchavady with the acknowledgement copy usually gets a quicker, specific answer than a call.
• If disbursement is routed through a bank or financial institution (because the unit was financed by PIPDIC, another government corporation, or a scheduled or co-operative bank), also check with that institution once the Directorate confirms the claim has been cleared, since the payment itself is credited or adjusted through them rather than paid directly to a self-financed unit.
• For unresolved delays, use the department's grievance mechanism at industry.py.gov.in/grievance-redressal-mechanism, quoting the same reference number and the date of submission.