With the Budget 2024 set to be tabled on July 23, corporate India is ready with its wishlist. Auto Inc is no exception and the industry is looking for the best ways to keep costs down in various aspects of manufacturing and logistics. Here are some expectations from the experts in the industry.
Policies to encourage EV adoption
For the upcoming budget, the expectation from the industry is to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles and move towards greener mobility. Budget 2023 saw a focus on manufacturing Green Hydrogen, to have an annual manufacturing capacity of 5 MMT by 2023.
Rationalise duties and taxes
There was also a custom duty for certain goods and machinery to wards manufacturing Lithium-ion cells for vehicles. Last year, the duty on compounded rubber also increased from 10 percent to 25 percent.
Policies for smart vehicle management
Budget 2022 saw a battery swapping policy brought out, which has been a fair success, especially for fleet operators in the two-wheeler and commercial vehicle space.
That said, for 2024, the auto industry is pushing on similar lines, to embed smart vehicular management systems within the current urban architecture, especially with smart cities. Amit Lakhotia, Founder & CEO, Park+, said, “All stakeholders need to work together to provide safe/legal parking spots, unclog gridlocks, combat monsoon-triggered flooding, create smart traffic management systems, build EV charging stations, ensure better driving behaviour, and reduce road accidents.”
Safety push
Automotive component manufacturers are also pushing for safer roads, asking the government to mandate certain safety features to make roads safer. Prashanth Doreswamy, CEO and President, Continental Automotive India, said, “Some legislations that mandate advanced safety features including ADAS, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) integration can meaningfully contribute to efficient transportation that is safer.”
GST on components a key concern
Another area automakers want the government to focus on is lowering GST for batteries and the continuation of FAME subsidies for better EV penetration. Deepak Pahwa, Director, Bry Air said, “EV industry is keenly anticipating announcements that will drive growth and innovation. To meet the nation’s goal of becoming net zero by 2070, accelerating EV adoption is crucial. Extending the FAME subsidy will be a significant step in this direction, helping to boost EV adoption across the country.”
Devndra Chawla, MD and CEO of Greencell Mobility also shared his thoughts around FAME, saying, “We endorse the ongoing success of FAME subsidy, especially FAME 2, with a Rs 10,000 crore budget and recommend FAME-III scheme to further enhance adoption of electric vehicles. Providing capital subsidy to private electric bus operators on inter-city routes will increase adoption on a large scale.”
Sridhar V, Partner, Grant Thornton Bharat, also said, “We observed good traction in the E2W segment with the sales crossing million units while FAME II was on and the government should look at furthering the attention to E2W, since it contributes to the largest volume of sales of vehicles in India and EV volumes have been down since the slashing of subsidy and end of FAME II.” Emobi’s CEO and Founder, Bharat Rao also encouraged the same, saying, “Accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) will be a key focus area in the upcoming FAME III and Budget 2024 discussions.”
