KUALA LUMPUR: There is still room for improvement in increasing Malaysia's clean energy adoption on top of the government's adopted measures in the renewable energy space.

Solarvest Holdings Bhd executive director and group chief executive officer Davis Chong Chun Shiong said in the upcoming Budget 2023, the company hopes the government will offer personal income tax relief of up to RM10,000 per annum over a maximum period of five years to encourage the installation of rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in the residential market.

"The reduction in initial costs will provide incentives for homeowners to adopt solar energy installations," he said in a statement today.

Besides that, the government could look into an interest-free loan for the B40 group and an interest-subsidy loan for the M40 group participating in the Net Energy Metering (NEM) rooftop solar programme. 

"These financing schemes will further increase the uptake of solar energy in the residential market," he added.

Chong also proposed that the government introduce tax incentives such as Green Investment Tax Allowance (GITA) and Green Income Tax Exemption (GITE) for property developers to integrate solar PV panels in their residential development projects.

"The involvement of property developers will stimulate wide-scale solar adoption in the residential sector," he said.

Meanwhile, Chong said the government could also look into further establishing a peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading platform to allow prosumers and consumers to trade excess solar PV electricity without an intermediary.

"Supported by digitalisation that enables a secure and transparent transaction, the growth of the P2P platform will promote the more significant deployment of solar energy, as well as the mitigation of energy flow congestion in the grid.

"As such, this can enhance energy and economic resilience by reducing the need for costly grid expansions in later phases," he said.