Uttarakhand’s Electric Vehicles policy offers loans for MSMEs to manufacture EVs and allows for tax exemption for EV buyers
The state government of Uttarakhand has released ‘The Uttarakhand EV Manufacturing EV Usage Promotion and Related Services Infrastructure Policy 2018’ with a 5-year plan. This policy aims to make Uttarakhand a suitable hub for investments and generate employment opportunities in EV manufacturing facilities.
Policy goals
The move comes amid the union government’s massive promotion of electric vehicles across the country and automakers have shown interest in investing in the upcoming segment. The state wants to create a suitable environment to support EV manufacturers through its special incentives and concessions. It has also planned to draw investments in the EV battery manufacturing and assembling capacity, and the development of charging and swapping infrastructure for EVs in the state. The incentives are applicable to the manufacturers of hybrid vehicles as well.
Incentives for EV makers in Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand has come up with infrastructure facilities, loans, land and many more to facilitate the makers. It will offer term loans of Rs.100-500 million to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to manufacture EVs.
Manufacturing plants that have a minimum of 100 employees will benefit from government’s employee provident fund per company of Rs. 20 million. The state government has also planned to contribute around 30-50 per cent of overall Goods and services tax (GST) paid by the MSMEs for 5 years since their first day of production. Additionally, the firms must also employ around 70 per cent of its staff from the state itself to avail the incentives.
Buyers’ benefit
The first 100,000 buyers of EVs in Uttarakhand will be exempted from motor vehicles tax for a duration of five years. This applies to the equal number of buyers purchasing commercial EVs or electric stage carriages as well. Moreover, the state government has set a rule that land provided to EV manufacturing sector will not be utilised for other purposes till 15 years.
Land allocated for setting up EV manufacturing or EV component manufacturing units cannot be utilized for any other purpose for 15 years from the grant. To avail incentives under this program, firms need to employ 70 per cent of their workforce from citizens residing in Uttarakhand.
