“India will lead the energy revolution in the world with the electric vehicles” said Finance Minister Piyush Goyal while presenting the Budget 2019 in Lok Sabha today in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Minister for Road, Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari. Piyush Goyal said there are 10 dimensions to be focused till 2030 and the third dimension is clean energy and electric vehicles.
Goyal said – “This India will drive on electric vehicles. We would not have to import oil and will produce electricity on our own domestically”. He also said India is fast becoming the automobile manufacturing hub of the world. However, no tax structures of rebate slabs were discussed during the budget.
Welcoming the push on EV, Mr Sohinder Gill, Director General- Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV) said - “Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s and Finance Minister Shri Piyush Goyal’s mission of bringing an Electric Vehicle revolution to India by 2030 is a truly path-breaking and will surely provide much-needed impetus to the industry. The government’s focus on the use of clean energy in the transportation sector would certainly help our country tackle the issue of climate change. EV industry welcomes our Hon'ble Finance Minister’s commitment towards making the country pollution free, in his budget speech 2019-2020. We hope the government would soon announce a concrete plan of action with its time-bound implementation in order to fulfil its stated vision. SMEV strongly feels that an initial high dose of incentives and actions must be taken in the next 1 or 2 years to relaunch the electric mobility mission that has sort of lost steam in the recent years due to flip flop of policies.”
A day ahead of the budget 2019, the government lowered customs duty on import of parts and components of such vehicles to 10 to 15 per cent to promote domestic assembling of electric vehicles.
“We welcome the Government’s vision to protect the environment and lead energy revolution with Electric Vehicles in the coming years. Volvo Cars’ future roadmap is completely in sync with this vision as globally we plan to go fully electric in the next few years. The fully electric car will make its entry into the Indian market soon after its global launch. We not only plan to launch the first-ever locally assembled plug-in hybrid vehicle in India later this year but also bring in four more plug in hybrid vehicles next year,” said Charles Frump, Managing Director, Volvo Car India.
“The Interim Budget is a very progressive budget. The government has taken some positive steps like the reduction in import duty from 15-30% to 10-15%. While, the lowered duties will promote local assembly of components, some kind of incentivization was an absolute necessity for OEM’s to invest in facilities that promote electric vehicles. I believe most of us were looking forward to the announcement of FAME II because it will give us a clear roadmap. We were hoping that the deduction of expenditure on R&D from 150% could have been taken to at least 200% reduction to start with. The next 3 years are crucial in terms of investments and the industry will be in a transition phase due to shift to BS VI and induction of EVs in the Indian ecosystem” - Nishant Arya, Director, JBM Group.
Venu Srinivasan, Chairman, TVS Motor Company Limited said “This budget has empowered and increased buying capacity of every sector and segment of people. Tax exemption up to Rs. 5 Lakh per annum income for individual tax payers is a historical step, which will provide more disposable income at hand for the working class. The decision will have an impact and there we expect more buyers of two-wheeler vehicles and in turn help the industry’s growth. The construction of rural roads having an allocation of Rs 19000 crores under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana will be another boost towards demand for rural economy. Two-wheeler industry in rural sector will also be positively impacted as Rs 6,000 per year cash support to about 12 crore small and marginal farmers will be provided under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme, which will cost the exchequer Rs 75,000 crore annually.”
Vinodkumar Ramachandran, Head, Industrial Manufacturing and Automotive, KPMG India - “With focus on rural India, this year’s budget will help boost the demand for tractors, farm equipment and light commercial vehicles. Also governments allocation of 19,000 crores for development of rural roads, will bring a positive boost in construction equipment industry, thereby leading to a demand in the two wheeler and small car market.”
Jeetender Sharma, Managing Director, Okinawa Scooter said, "We are pleased to know that the government sees electric vehicles as a key part of its vision for 2030. The government has announced a slew of favorable policies for the EVs, most recently reducing the import tariff on imported parts to 10 to 15%. While this would boost the demand and supply of EVs in India, the interim budget announcement also favours the same. As the government gears up to make India pollution free and promote electric vehicles, we believe that India will emerge as one amongst the globally-leading manufacturing hubs for electric vehicles. The boost from the government will also attract global leaders and Indian manufacturers to innovate and make electric vehicles a lucrative segment for everyday consumers."
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