Heavy Industries Ministry gearing up for FAME India scheme roll out

The Dollar Business Bureau

The Heavy Industries Ministry is gearing up to decide the final modalities for a nation-wide release of FAME India scheme before March-end in a bid to encourage the use of eco-friendly vehicles.

“The pilot is a two years project which is completing in March. We are still working on the nation-wide rollout of the scheme. We will be finalising it before March-end. How it will be rolled out and what will be the future of FAME, is yet to be decided,” said Heavy Industries Secretary Girish Shankar.

FAME India - Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric vehicles in India - falls under the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan and envisaged a support of Rs.795 crore in the first two fiscals starting with the current year.

As per the Heavy Industries Ministry, an incentive of 200% should also be provided for research and development (R&D) in the automobile sector and has requested the Finance Ministry to include the same in the next budget.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced an outlay of Rs.75 crore for the scheme in the budget 2015-2016.

According to Shankar, who was speaking on the sidelines of ARAI event on upcoming symposium on international automotive technologies, the ministry has already consulted the stakeholders, including the OEMs and the ACMA people, for the scheme to take the final shape.

The government in April 2015 had formally launched the FAME India scheme offering incentives on electric and hybrid vehicles of up to Rs.29,000 for bikes and Rs.1.38 lakh for cars.