Expectation from Budget 2022
Dr. Akshay Singhal
Founder, Log9 materials, working in the advanced EV battery-technology domain: In the upcoming Union Budget, from the EV ecosystem perspective, we hope to see that the FAME Subsidy corpus should be extended to EV retro fitment kits. Additionally, more R&D incentives should be given for energy storage and EV technology-related developments in India, as well as R&D investments made into local technology developments, which should be made 100% adjustable against corporate taxes.
Akash Gupta
Co-founder and CEO, Zypp Electric India is undergoing a massive EV revolution – which will get a further boost in 2022 following the rapid growth of charging infrastructure and advanced EV models. We are optimistic that the government will announce new initiatives to encourage local EV manufacturing, facilitate easy finance, and create an innovative EV ecosystem. With that said, we urge the government to reduce GST on EV purchases and rentals from 5% to 2%. A reduced GST would allow consumers to smoothly shift to EV. The Finance Ministry can also reduce taxes levied on loans taken to purchase an EV. GST reduction and tax benefits would play a crucial role in making EVs accessible to everyone. Additionally, the government can also subsidise electricity pricing for EV charging to further improvise the existing EV charging infrastructure.
Prashanth Doreswamy
President & CEO – Continental India The Union Budget 2022-23 is of paramount significance for the nation’s automotive and manufacturing industry. With an unsettled pandemic situation and prevailing semiconductor shortages, the automotive and manufacturing industry is expected to be of prominent importance in the budget. We expect the government to introduce a uniform Goods and Services Tax (GST) levy of 18 percent on all automotive parts from the current 28 percent. This step will give much-needed support to the automotive industry amid the uncertainties. The government has been taking significant steps to promote electric and safe mobility. We expect some relaxation for the research and development of new technologies. This will further motivate OEMs and automotive suppliers like us to invest in innovations and technologies for the country. The PLI scheme is a welcome step and we hope the scheme will be further expanded this year. Further, we seek reintroduction of investment allowance at 15 percent for manufacturing companies that invest more than Rs 25 crore in plant and machinery. This will complement the PLI scheme and attract more investment in the sector.
62 | Telematics Wire | February 2022
Deepak MV
CEO & Co-Founder, Etrio At a time when EV adoption is gaining unprecedented momentum despite many challenges, in the upcoming Union Budget 2022, we at Etrio would like to see the Finance Minister address the critically-important area of making wide and varied range of financing options available for EV commercial vehicles’ buyers – as this is extremely critical for further increased uptake of EVs in India, going forward. To this end, the Government should make the EV sector a priority lending sector for the financial institutions. Additionally, reducing the GST taxation on Lithium-ion batteries and EV spare parts and components can also be a great step forward from the EV manufacturing and OEM point of view. Given that increased adoption of EVs in the logistics and last-mile delivery segment is the need of the hour to reduce Carbon emissions, the Government must also come up with additional sops or incentives for the nation’s fleet aggregators to switch entirely from IC engines to EVs in order to pave a sustainable and zeroemissions future. Last but not the least, we also hope that this Budget answers the need for revitalizing the B2B retrofitment (ICE to EV conversion) space pan-India by bringing retrofitment under the ambit of FAME-II.
