Tesla at the gates, India rolls out red carpet for global EV makers
Tesla, including a drastic cut in customs duty, as an incentive to set up manufacturing facilities in the country. The contours of the Scheme to Promote Manufacturing of Electric Passenger Cars in India are in line with a persistent demand from the Elon Musk-led company to lower India’s 70% import duty on cars if it was to establish a plant in India.
The policy allows a sharply reduced rate of 15% customs duty for up to 8,000 EVs annually imported by a company that commits to Make in India. According to the policy document, carryover of any unutilised annual import limits will be permitted. The finance ministry notified the lower duty rate on Friday.
“Companies setting up manufacturing facilities for EVs will be allowed a limited import of cars at lower custom duties,” said heavy industries minister Mahendra Nath Pandey.
The new scheme offers the concessional import duty for five years to companies that commit fresh investment of at least $500 million in the country. “The government has unveiled a groundbreaking policy aimed at supercharging domestic EV manufacturing,” said EY partner Saurabh Agarwal.
This will propel India into the high-tech EV arena, he said. While the heavy industries ministry notified the policy, it has been steered by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MOC&I).
“The idea is to kickstart four-wheeler, ecar manufacturing in India, with very stringent kind of value addition norms while also ensuring that we allow
