As per the media reports, the government is investigating four leading two-wheeler EV manufacturers for artificially keeping the prices of their products lower to claim the subsidy. The companies including TVS Motors, Ather Energy, Ola Electric and VIDA mispriced their two-wheelers to make themselves eligible for subsidy under government’s Faster Adoption & Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) Scheme. To qualify for the subsidy, certain parameters have been designed by the government. These EV companies misused the loopholes to claim the subsidy.
The false subsidy raised after mispricing the products is concluded around ₹300 cr under the government scheme, according to published media reports. As quoted by a senior official of Heavy Industries Ministry, currently the verification process is going internally after receiving complaint and they have not notified the EV manufacturer officially regarding the same. Means, until now, the officials have not sent any legal notice to EV manufacturing firms and the probe is in a primary phase.
As per the subsidy law, two-wheelers electric OEMs are not eligible for the rebate if the ex-factory price is more than ₹1.50 Lakh. Hence, the four EV manufacturing firms have been alleged for creating separate bills for the vehicle and for integral parts including proprietary software and charger, leading them to show actual product price lower than pre-determined slab. This helped these firms to show the lower price to the government to get subsidy claims.
According to the media reports, this incidence helped EV manufacturers forge a profit of ₹300 cr, leading to a complaint to the MHI and giving the government officials a reason to initiate a probe.
Source: The Economic Times
