Karnataka to roll out new electric vehicle policy: CNBC-TV 18

The Karnataka government is likely to go for a new electric vehicle policy for the upcoming five years. The new policy in consideration is likely to exempt road taxes for all strong hybrid and electric vehicles under Rs 25 lakh, CNBC-TV18 reported. 

The ambition of the state is to attract  Rs 50,000 crore as investments in the value chain of clean mobility by 2029. Moreover, the state is also considering giving incentives up to 50 percent of fixed asset’s value, the report read. 

New or expanded projects might get a Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) of one percent of turnover for five years.

According to the article, the state administration is also considering providing enterprises with a 15-25 percent capital investment incentive as well as stamp duty exemptions.

The update comes at a time when Karnataka has lost out to neighbouring Tamil Nadu on manufacturing factories for Bengaluru-based EV startups Ola and Ather and is now planning to attract corporations to establish operations in the state.

Citing IT-BT Secretary Ekroop Caur in her response to a question about how Karnataka is losing EV manufacturing plants to neighbouring states, Moneycontrol reported, "I'm confident that with the new policies and the government's focus on creating industrial townships around Bengaluru, which are in high demand by tech-oriented industries requiring high-end skills, we will be able to attract these companies back to Karnataka."