Sanjeev K Sharma
JAMMU, Aug 17: While most of the States and Union Territories (UTs) of the country have already come up with their Electric Vehicle and Allied Infrastructure Policy applicable to all the commercial and non-commercial electric vehicles which shall be entitled to avail incentives under this policy, Jammu and Kashmir is yet to come up with such a development.
Even the UT of Ladakh has come up with its EV Policy 2022 and it was implemented on August 17, 2022.
Though the General Administrative Department (GAD) of J&K Government had constituted a committee headed by Administrative Secretary, Housing and Urban Development Department (HUDD) for the formulation of Electric Vehicle (EV) Policy for the UT of J&K on October 20, 2022, yet the final report by this Committee is still awaited.
Administrative Secretaries of Departments like Transport, Industries and Commerce and Power Development Department (PDD) were members of the Committee along with Secretary Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Department and Director General, Budget.
Highly placed sources informed that only 1 to 2 meetings of this Committee have taken place so far after which some officers, who were part of the Committee, were transferred and now the GAD is considering to reconstitute this Committee.
“After the Committee conducts its final meeting and gives recommendations to the Government, the Comprehensive Electrical Vehicle Policy will be notified and it may take two months more from now,” they said.
Official sources informed that the policy will also pave way for monetary support in the form of subsidy from the Government to those who buys electric vehicle.
Reliable sources informed that Transport Department along with other departments like HUDD and PDD have to work united for the success of this policy.
“Till there is no public infrastructure for charging, electric vehicles may face problems and for that HUDD and Local Bodies are supposed to provide land for such charging infrastructure,” they maintained adding: “PDD has also to provide electricity at concessional rates because if they charge at commercial rates then no entrepreneur will come forward to start the charging station as they will have no profits on commercial rates.”
They further informed that keeping the topography of J&K, hybrid vehicles better suit here.
“Suppose you are going from Jammu to Rajouri and the charge of the vehicle exhausts near Kalidhar curves and there is no charging station nearby. You will be in a problem then. But, with hybrid vehicles one may switch over to petrol or diesel mode in such circumstances to move ahead and after travelling few kilometres the battery again gets charged and one may then switch over to electric mode. All these things will be part of the EV Policy,” sources claimed.
Similarly, sources in Transport Department informed that presently there are some immediate fiscal incentives for electric vehicles like if one buys an electric taxi or electric bus, he does not need any route permit otherwise for the permit only one has to pay about Rs. 1.5 lakh in form of fee.
“Also there is no Road Tax for Electric Vehicles while for the conventional vehicles it is 9 per cent of the cost of the vehicle including Goods and Service Tax (GST),” they said adding: “Even the Pollution Control Certificate is also not needed for these vehicles.”
Electric vehicles are expected to play a big role in controlling pollution.
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