Further stressing its intentions on achieving the target of 30% e-vehicles being registered in the county by 2030, the government has announced a few steps in the sector. The latest development is a report submitted by a panel appointed by the government which has made its recommendations. Some of these recommendations include lowering the customs duty on the components for the electric vehicles, and the corresponding decrease in the rate of GST. The panel says the rates being charged for registration of the vehicles as well as the road tax and even the parking fees, be reduced for the e-vehicles. The panel is headed by none other than the Cabinet Secretary himself.
A meeting is being held at the Prime Minister’s Office on January 9 to consider the recommendations of the panel.
Department of Revenue, Department of Heavy Industries and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways will be the nodal entities to implement the decisions being made at this high-powered meeting. The Niti Aayog will monitor the activities of these departments in the matter.
As already reported, this is not the first time the government has initiated policy decisions in the e-mobility space. One of them relates to the use of the government’s own e-marketplace, GeM, to collect the requirements of vehicles across the different government departments throughout the country and then negotiate with the sellers for bulk-ordering of e-vehicles. Already, there is a directive that all government vehicles being purchased in the future should be ‘green’ vehicles.
There is the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric vehicles (FAME) for which the government has made an allocation of Rs 895 crore.
In addition, the government has allocated an amount of Rs 500 crore for setting up a venture capital fund that can help in funding projects and startups engaged in manufacturing zero-emission vehicles and doing research in the sector.
All types of electric vehicles, like 2-wheelers, 3-wheelers and 4-wheelers will be eligible for subsidies.