The Rajasthan government has come up with an electric vehicle policy to encourage the purchase of electric vehicles in the state.
The Rajasthan Electric Vehicle Policy (REVP) came into being from Thursday under which the government has sanctioned a fund of Rs 40 crore for contribution on the purchase of electric vehicles.
An official of the transport department said that a notification in this regard was issued on Wednesday. The policy will be for a period of five years from September 1, 2022.
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had announced the policy in the budget 2019-20, and had approved the draft policy on 24 May this year.
Under this, the government approved the proposed one-time contribution on the purchase of electric vehicles and an additional budget provision of Rs 40 crore for reimbursement of State Goods and Services Tax (SGST).
With the increase of electric vehicles, which is encouraged through the policy, pollution caused by diesel and petrol vehicles in the state will come down, the official said.
The state government had announced to reimburse Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 SGST amount for two-wheelers and Rs 10,000 to 20,000 for the purchase of three-wheelers according to the battery capacity of the vehicle.
At the same time, the transport department has received a sum of Rs 40 crore to clear the pending cases of grant on the purchase of electric vehicles.
"We have received funds from the state government and all pending dues related to electric vehicle purchase of this financial year will be cleared soon," Transport Commissioner K L Swami said.
An amount of Rs 18 crore was given as grants to people who bought EVs in the last financial year in 12 Regional Transport Office (RTO) areas of the state.
Of Rs 40 crore, a grant amount of Rs 5 crore is to be disbursed to 3,000 vehicle owners (who purchased vehicles in the current fiscal year) in the state, which will be done soon.