Public Transport Permit Mandatory for Commercial EVs To Avail FAME-II Incentives

The Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid) and Electric Vehicles (FAME) scheme in its second phase starting next week, has made Public transport Mandatory for commercial EVs.

From April 1, the owners of commercial electric vehicles (three wheelers and four wheelers) will be required to have a public transport permit from a government agency in order to avail the benefits FAME II scheme.

FAME II scheme which was launched in February by the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises (MoHIPE), is due to take effect from April 1, 2019 and will span for three years.

According to operational guidelines for delivery of demand incentives under FAME-II scheme include:

• Subsidies to buyers on the purchase of vehicles along with other benefits like exemptions in roads tax, registrations fees, and parking fee.
• The public transport permit required for electric three wheelers and four wheelers needs to state that the vehicle will be used only for public transport purposes and not for private use.
• FAME II will support 5 lakh e-rickshaws (e-3W) having ex-factory price of up to Rs 5 lakh with an incentive of Rs 50,000 each.
• It will also offer a sop of Rs 1.5 lakh each to 35,000 electric four-wheelers (e-4W) with an ex-factory price of up to Rs 15 lakh with an aim to boost clean mobility in mass transport.
• It will also offer a subsidy of up to Rs. 1.5 lakh each to 55,000 commercial electric four-wheelers with an ex-factory price of up to Rs. 15 lakh.
• Under FAME II, for e-2W segment, incentives are also applicable for privately-owned vehicles. Two-wheelers costing up to Rs 1.5 lakh are eligible for an incentive of up to Rs 20,000.

“In the e-3W, e-4W and e-bus segments, incentives will be applicable mainly to vehicles used for public transport or those registered for commercial purposes,” it added.

The guidelines of FAME II require that the vehicle dealers ensure that the incentives are passed on to individuals using vehicles only for commercial use in case of three wheelers and four wheelers. This is because FAME II aims to encourage the use of electric vehicles as public and commercial transports.

The guidelines also say, “A dealer should ensure that only one vehicle per category per person is allowed to claim demand incentives. No individual person can purchase more than one vehicle of the same category and claim incentives under the scheme. However, there will be no restrictions for the number of vehicles to be purchased by other than individual categories of buyers.”

The second phase of the FAME scheme, which has a total outlay of Rs. 10,000 crore aims to boost clean mobility in public transport. FAME II lays special focus on public and shared transports and aims to develop an ecosystem for electric vehicles in the country by incentivizing the EVs and building a robust charging infrastructure.