EV makers lament lack of clarity on green vehicle promotion

Electric vehicle makers today rued lack of clarity in the Budget on the road map for promotion of eco-friendly vehicles stating that it has left manufacturers in a dilemma.
"We expected the Budget to give us long term clarity on NEMMP (National Electric Mobility Mission Plan) so that the manufacturer can plan business accordingly. There is no mention of electric vehicle in the budget..," Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV) Director Corporate Affairs Sohinder Gill said in a statement.
He further said: "This has left all the manufacturers in the dilemma on the government plan on promoting Green Technology."

Expressing similar sentiments, Toyota Kirloskar Motor Vice Chairman and Whole - Time Director Shekar Viswanathan said: "We would have expected some measures to promote alternate fuel technologies which would have helped the environment also."
Hyundai Motor India Senior Vice-President (Sales and Marketing) Rakesh Srivastava said: "There were expectations of investment incentives towards bringing in fuel cell and hybrid vehicles."
Earlier in the day, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced relief to the environment friendly vehicles by extending without time limit the customs and excise duty concessions on specified parts of electric vehicles/hybrid vehicles which was to expire on March 31, 2016.

Moreover, as per the Budget 2016-17 proposals, excise duty on engines for hybrid electric vehicles has been reduced to 6 per cent from 12.5 per cent earlier.
Last year, to promote eco-friendly vehicles, the government had launched the FAME India scheme offering incentives on electric and hybrid vehicles of up to Rs 29,000 for bikes and Rs 1.38 lakh for cars.
FAME India - Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric vehicles in India - is a part of the NEMMP. The government had approved an initial outlay of Rs 75 crore from plan fund for the scheme in the first year. The total envisaged outlay to support the scheme in the first two fiscals is Rs 795 crore.