The Assam government on Wednesday unveiled an electric vehicle (EV) policy for phasing out fossil fuel-based vehicles by 2030.
The mission, approved recently, entails converting all government vehicles and fleet of public buses to electric and deploying 2 lakh EVs within the next five years.
The Industries, Commerce and Public Enterprises Department said the Electric Vehicle Policy, 2021, offers a set of incentives for people to switch to EVs.
These include 100% exemption on registration charges and road tax besides waiver on parking charges. Buyers of two-wheeler, three-wheeler and four-wheeler EVs will be entitled to a subsidy of ₹20,000, ₹50,000 and ₹1.5 lakh respectively while entrepreneurs setting up EV charging stations have been assured 90% exemption of electricity duty.
Short-term goals
The policy also has some short-term goals.
“We plan to roll out 200 electric and 100 CNG buses in Guwahati by April 1, 2022,” Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
There is a slew of incentives for people keen on setting up EV manufacturing units too.
The offers for such units include capital, power, interest and employment cost subsidy, income tax exemption, and GST/SGST and stamp duty reimbursement. These incentives would be under the North East Industrial Development Scheme, 2017 and the Industrial and Investment Policy of Assam, 2019.
The policy, officials said, envisages that 25% of the newly-registered vehicles will be EVs by 2026.
