Govt refuses to budge on electric vehicle deadline for 2- and 3-wheelers
Posted on 22nd June 2019 |
.jpg) |
The government has refused to relent on the deadlines it has given two- and three-wheelers for running on batteries.
The deadline for three-wheelers is 2023, and that for two-wheelers having up to a 150-cc engine is 2025.
Industry executives who attended a high-powered meeting said the NITI Aayog had refused to extend the deadline and asked them to submit a road map on the proposal of transition in two weeks.
Makers of electric vehicles (EVs) and officials of the NITI Aayog and the government took part in the meeting.
The government is firm that extending the deadline is difficult, and tried to impress upon electric vehicle makers that unless they acted, the Courts would step and the big players would be left with little choice.
“We are giving them six years to complete the roll-out of the electronic two-wheeler, which is good enough,” said a senior official who participated in the meeting. He said the policy would drive change in India.
Industry executives said the aggressive road map of transition would hurt the sector commercially and they would petition the government through their lobby group Service Integration and Management (SIAM).
“We will ask for a review. My assembly line, which has been set up with a large capital investment, cannot be changed overnight and transitioned in two years. That is impossible and will hit us commercially,” said an executive aware of the development.
“It was a very aggressive meeting between the government and the industry,” said another executive who attended it. “In their (NITI Aayog) wisdom, 2023 and 2025 are the deadlines they want the industry to adhere to. But they said if the industry had a better alternative, it should come back within 15 days.”
Earlier this month, Bajaj Auto and TVS Motor Company said any plan to ban three-wheelers and two-wheelers running on the internal combustion engine was “unrealistic” and “ill-timed” and would destabilise the auto industry. Two-wheeler market leader Hero MotoCorp said the plan to shift to electric mobility at a time when the manufacturers were trying to upgrade their models to comply with BS-VI emission norms could have a bad impact on the industry.
The views of both the sides will now be placed before the high-powered transformative mobility panel, which comprises senior officials of the line ministries, experts and others.
Officials said imposing conditions on the companies to force them to move to EVs was ruled out for now, but if pushed too far, the government had options such as restricting registration and imposing the “polluter pays principle” on such companies.
An official said if the big companies gave a firm EV roll-out commitment, the government could consider increasing the subsidy to them under the FAME (faster adoption of manufacturing electric vehicles) policy.
Sources said two distinct views emerged in the meeting. While the emerging players and start-ups such as Torque, Revolt, Ather, Kinetic Green and Smart-e wanted the deadline for the two-wheeler roll-out to be advanced from 2025 to 2023 or earlier, established players like TVS, Bajaj and Hero Honda wanted a more “business as usual” approach and said the roll-out should not be made mandatory.
The start-ups said unless India had size and scale in EVs, it would miss the worldwide e-mobility revolution just as it missed other similar changes and paid a heavy price. |
|
|
|
|
Bharti Airtel defers Q2 results till Nov 14 over ambiguity on AGR verdict
Posted on 29th October 2019 |
.jpg) |
Bharti Airtel said on Tuesday it has postponed its second-quarter earnings report to mid-November, as the wireless operator sought clarity on the court ruling asking telecom firms to cough up overdue payments to the government.
Shares of the company, which was expected to release its quarterly numbers later in the day, dropped 3.3 per cent in early trade. |
|
|
Rupee slips 8 paise vs US dollar in early trade amid drop in oil prices
Posted on 7th October 2019 |
.jpg) |
The rupee on Monday opened eight paise lower at 70.96 against the US dollar amid drop in crude oil prices and rise in Asian equities. The domestic unit on Friday closed almost flat at 70.88 against after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in a widely expected move cut key interest rates by 0.25 percentage point. On a weekly basis, the local unit slumped by 32 paise. |
|
|
LIC pips private insurers in first-year premium growth during April-August
Posted on 13th September 2019 |
.jpg) |
In the first five months of the current financial year, first-year premiums of life insurance companies grew by 39.84% (year-on-year) at Rs 1.05 lakh crore as compared to Rs 75,588.35 crore in April-August of 2018-19. Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) continued to grow at a faster pace compared to private insurance players, shows the data from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai). |
|
|
Apollo Hospitals rules out further stake sale
Posted on 13th September 2019 |
.jpg) |
Apollo Hospitals Enterprise (AHEL) has ruled out further dilution of promoters’ stake in the company. The company also said its Rs 1,337-crore stake sale of Apollo Munich Health Insurance with mortgage major HDFC will be concluded by October. Following these stake sales, the promoters’ pledged position will come down from a high of 76% to 54% by October and eventually to 20% by November or December, company sources said here. |
|
|
World trusts India on Kashmir, not us: Pakistan minister Ijaz Ahmed Shah
Posted on 13th September 2019 |
.jpg) |
In a major embarrassment for Pakistan and its Prime Minister Imran Khan, the country's Interior Minister Ijaz Ahmed Shah, a retired brigadier, said the international community didn't believe Pakistan's narrative on Kashmir; instead it is India whose version is trusted. |
|
|
|
|
| Be the first person to write a business review for Govt refuses to budge on electric vehicle deadline for 2- and 3-wheelers |
|
|
|
