India to streamline electric vehicle policy to push demand

The government think tank NITI Aayog has held a stakeholders’ meeting in a bid to boost demand and set a timeline for the adoption of electric vehicles in the country. The think tank is in favour of bringing electric vehicle financing under priority lending and also extending the timeline and subsidy under Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and EV (FAME) II scheme by one year.

In an extensive stakeholder meet held recently, the industry sought an increase in subsidy under the FAME II scheme for one year to accelerate demand. It has also sought streamlining of Goods and Services Tax (GST) and import duties on battery, cells, and components. It is also being suggested that tariffs for electric vehicle charging should not increase more than 15 percent of the average cost of supply. The plan is also to bring battery swapping and captive charging stations under the FAME II incentive.

The think tank is also looking at bringing 50 percent incentive on the purchase of EVs and rest 50 percent for the energy operators under the FAME II scheme on the lines of recently announced EV policy of the Delhi government. It has also asked the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas (MoPNG) to identify 1000 fuel retail outlets to increase charging stations. MoPNG so far has identified 382 retail outlets which include 250 outlets of IOC, 100 of HPCL, and 32 outlets of BPCL.

Under the FAME II scheme, the government has set an outlay of Rs. 10,000 crore for a period of 3 years starting 1st April 2019. Under the scheme, the plan is to generate demand by way of supporting 7000 e-Buses, 5 lakh e-3 Wheelers, 55000 e-4 Wheeler Passenger Cars, and 10 lakh e-2 Wheelers. So far 25,577 have been sold under the scheme and, and Rs 71.48 crore incentive amount has been disbursed.

Source : cnbctv18