The ₹78,000 household subsidy is still open through 31 March 2027. The rush has produced a second market: people who are not on the vendor list, selling rooftops under a brand you cannot find on the portal. The pitch is familiar. Instant installation. A guaranteed subsidy. A discount against any quote from a company with an office. WhatsApp forwards then add a second scare, a homemade list of “blacklisted” companies. A screenshot is not a blacklist. The list that matters is the vendor list on the national portal for your KSEB connection.
How a borrowed portal login works
Only a vendor registered on the national portal can be selected for a PM Surya Ghar application. KSEB still has to clear feasibility, inspect the roof, and fit the bi-directional meter. The portal step is what an unregistered installer cannot do in their own name. The workaround we keep seeing has four moves.
- The discount. An agent, a local electrician, or a “franchise” offers a price well under the quotes from companies you can visit. The gap people quote us is often ₹15,000 to ₹25,000. That gap can be a real saving. It can also be the margin taken out of the structure, the earth, and the cable.
- The hardware. Panels and an inverter are bought from a distributor. The rest of the plant is where a cheap job hides: thin mounting steel, ordinary nails instead of chemical anchors, a single earth, undersized DC cable, and a protection box with no proper surge device. The brand name on the panel does not describe that work.
- The borrowed ID. Because the agent has no login, someone who does — a registered vendor or a distributor — uploads the file for a fee, or lends the credentials. You may be told to select that other company on the portal because they are a “sister concern” or a “partner.” The commissioning certificate then carries a name you never contracted.
- The exit. After the final payment, the person who sold the discount is not the company on the certificate. When a number goes dead a year later, the file still shows the vendor who only lent the login.
What fails in year two
A rooftop plant sits in heat, lightning, and monsoon for the life of the modules. The failures that come back to us are ordinary: a grid-fault alarm on the inverter, a stain on the ceiling under a foot, a string that has stopped. The expensive part is who answers.
Call the agent and the number may be gone. Call the company printed on the commissioning certificate and you are a stranger. They sold modules to someone else. They did not survey your roof, they did not sign your agreement, and they do not have your site on a service list. Manufacturers take the same view of damage that starts in the installation. A performance warranty, commonly 25 years on the module, is a claim about the module. It is not a promise to rebuild a plant that was earthed with a thin wire or left without a surge path. Inverter warranties are shorter and sit with the brand, claimed through the seller on the invoice.
The scheme’s own maintenance promise lives in the consumer–vendor agreement with the registered vendor. On these jobs that obligation is five years of plant maintenance by that vendor. If the vendor on the agreement is not the company you paid, you are asking a company with no contract to do the five years. Inspection also matches module serials to the portal. A DCR serial that does not match the roof is how a subsidy file stops. We do not quote a recovery-with-interest notice we have not put in front of you. The practical loss is a file in the wrong name, and a roof nobody you paid will service.
Portal vendor and outside agent
| What to compare | Vendor on the national portal | Agent using someone else’s login |
|---|---|---|
| Portal | You select that company’s own name on pmsuryaghar.gov.in. | The name you are told to select is a company you have not met. |
| Money | GST invoice and the receiving account use that same name. | Payment is asked into a personal UPI, a different firm, or cash, while the portal shows someone else. |
| Five-year maintenance | Written in the agreement with the vendor you selected. | The agent has no agreement. The portal vendor did not sign your roof. |
| The roof | Chemical anchors, separate AC and DC earths, surge protection, and cable you can specify. | The discount is often taken from anchors, earth wire, and the protection box. |
| Year three | You call the company on the invoice. For Sonetec, that is the Chathannoor, Anchal, or Chadayamangalam office. | You call a certificate. The company on it says the sale was not theirs. |
Module performance warranties of about 25 years come from the manufacturer. Inverter cover is the brand’s own term, often much shorter. Sonetec raises those claims for plants we sold and installed. A discount is not proof of a fraud. A mismatched name is.
Five checks before you pay
1. Match the three names
Quotation and GST invoice. Bank account. Vendor selected on the national portal. One legal name. “Select our partner on the portal” is the sentence to end the meeting on.
2. Pay the company on the invoice
The transfer should land in the account of that company. A personal UPI, or a request for cash against a portal file in another name, is the borrowed-login pattern.
3. Visit a real office
A WhatsApp display picture is not a service team. Sonetec’s offices are in Chathannoor, Anchal, and Chadayamangalam. Ask who comes back when the inverter alarms.
4. Read the agreement name
The consumer–vendor agreement should be signed for the vendor you selected, and it should say who maintains the plant. Do not sign a blank page that a third person will upload.
5. Match serials on day one
DCR modules have serials. KSEB and the portal compare them with the roof. Ask for the serial list with the invoice, not a forwarded PDF from an unknown brand. One non-DCR module makes the subsidy plant ineligible. That rule is separate from who sold you the job, and it is in the KSEB timing guide.
What Sonetec puts its name on
We are registered for PM Surya Ghar and we install in South Kerala. On a subsidy roof the quotation, the GST invoice, the portal vendor, and the commissioning certificate are Sonetec Powers. We do not hand the portal login to another installer to clear your file. You can confirm the listing yourself: start the application with your KSEB consumer number and search the vendor list. The same instruction is on our FAQ.
The engineering we specify is the same standard we publish for every roof. Chemical anchors and concrete pedestals on the legs. A walkway when the structure is high. A DC earth for the structure and a separate AC earth for the inverter, in at least 10 SWG copper. Surge protection on both sides. A lightning arrestor with its own pit. Luminous or Microtek where that inverter fits the load, and ALMM-listed DCR modules on subsidy jobs. The five-year maintenance on a subsidy plant is ours because the agreement is ours. The 25-year performance line is the module maker’s warranty, claimed through us for plants we installed.
Questions before you transfer an advance
How do I check that a solar company is a real PM Surya Ghar vendor?
What if the invoice is in one name and the portal vendor is another?
Can a cheaper quote from an agent still get the ₹78,000?
Who services the plant after the agent has gone?
Select the vendor you can visit
Free roof survey in Kollam, Thiruvananthapuram, Pathanamthitta, and Alappuzha. We quote, invoice, register, and service as Sonetec Powers.
Subsidy files run through pmsuryaghar.gov.in. The vendor you select there is the vendor of record. KSEB does feasibility, inspection, and the meter. DCR serials are checked at inspection. Warranties beyond the vendor agreement are the manufacturer’s terms. Sonetec installs in South Kerala.