Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Karnataka have emerged as top three states in terms of registration of electric vehicles in India, the government said on Wednesday. In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said that 870,141 electric vehicles have been registered in India. Uttar Pradesh (255,700) has the highest registered electric vehicles, followed by Delhi (125,347) and Karnataka (72,544) come in that order. The fourth and fifth spots are grabbed by Bihar (58,014) and Maharashtra (52,506).
Gadkari said the Ministry of Heavy Industries formulated a scheme namely Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME India) Scheme in 2015 to promote adoption of electric and hybrid vehicles in the country with an aim to reduce dependency on fossil fuels.
At present, Phase-II of FAME India scheme is being implemented for a period of five years with effect from April 1, 2019 with a total budgetary support of Rs 10,000 crore, he added.
GST on electric vehicles has been reduced from 12 per cent to 5 per cent; GST on chargers/ charging stations for electric vehicles has been reduced from 18 per cent to 5 per cent. Replying to a separate question, Gadkari said at present, all fee plazas on National Highways are equipped with FASTag Facility. Around 35 banks (including public and private sector banks) have been engaged as issuer banks to issue FASTag to road users and 14 acquirer banks are also engaged to process transactions at toll plazas.
“As on December 4, 2021, 4.21 crore FASTags have been issued and approx 97 per cent of total user fee is collected through FASTag,” he said. Replying to another question, he said the road ministry is primarily responsible for development and maintenance of National Highways (NHs).
“Apart from this, the ministry also allocates funds for state governments / Union Territories (UTs) for development and maintenance of state roads under the Central Road & Infrastructure Fund (CRIF) and Economic Importance & Interstate Connectivity (EI&ISC) schemes,” Gadkari said.
