The Society for Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV) has sent a petition to the parliamentary standing committee on industry, energy and estimates pointing to the “erroneous” claim made by the ministry of heavy industries of achieving its target of subsidising one million electric two-wheelers by April 2023.
The petition says the claim is wrong because the ministry has included the sale of EVs that has not been subsidised under the FAME II scheme.
The government had from April 2022 started blocking the FAME II subsidies to OEMs in the EV sector for flouting the stipulations of localisation and price cap. Auditors consulting with the SMEV have contended that the figures stated by the ministry on FAME II mandated targets, have included sales of those EVs that were not funded under the scheme.
The total number of e-two-wheelers sold under FAME II scheme between April 2019 and 2023 is listed at 9.6 lakh. But 4.5 lakh vehicles out of these have not been reimbursed the subsidy component till date, on one account or the other. Only around 5 lakh e-two-wheelers have been funded under the FAME II scheme: a clear shortfall in target by half.
Says Sohinder Gill, CEO of Hero Electric, one of the OEMs which have been barred from receiving the FAME II subsidies: “There are several issues here. The target of FAME II of achieving one million EV sales in four years is ridiculous. It’s a negligible target.
“Second, about 40 to 45 per cent of the targeted sales is not supported by the ministry. The OEM itself is paying out the subsidies to its customers. The ministry has stopped reimbursing the subsidy. How can the ministry count the sales of these EVs in its target?”
When pointed out that the ministry withheld payout of subsidies because the OEMs were flouting localisation regulations, Gill said: “That’s another issue altogether. But what we want to point out is that the ministry is making fraudulent claims.”
The society feels at least until the unpaid subsidies are released, these EV sales should not accrue to the ministry’s target figures or else the subsidies should be released if the figures have to hold.
