Walking The Talk On EVs

Electric vehicles get a bonanza in Budget 2019 as government gets serious on e-mobility.

- Sumant Banerji

For an industry that is still in its infancy, the kind of attention the domestic electric vehicle (EV) industry has received in this year’s Budget is unprecedented. The government has laid to rest any notion that its talk of electrification of mobility is lip service.

The bonanza is bountiful. There is an income tax deduction of 1.5 lakh per annum on loans taken to buy EVs. The benefit to the customer works out to around 2.5 lakh over the five-year loan period. Further, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that a scheme to provide investment-linked income tax exemptions under Section 35 AD of the Income Tax Act will be launched for mega manufacturing plants in sunrise and advanced technology areas such as lithium storage batteries and solar electric charging infrastructure. Additionally, import duties on many electric components such as e-drive assembly, onboard charger, e-compressor and charging gun have been scrapped.