No Make-in-India, no tax benefits; Indian govt clarifies stand on Tesla's import duty demand

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The government questions Tesla over seeking tax breaks to use Indian markets to sell its electric vehicles. However, the government notes that Tesla is not showing interest in setting up its manufacturing facilities in the country that can lead to generating thousands of jobs. 

"We can’t grant subsidies or relaxation in taxes to the said company as they don’t want to set-up their manufacturing and other operation bases here. Why should we favor a company which creates jobs in China and mints profit from our markets? Our Prime Minister has a vision for all such foreign companies, if you want to sell your product in our country, then manufacture them here only," Minister of State for Heavy Industries Krishna Pal Gujjar told the Lok Sabha in response to a question by Shiv Sena member Vinayak Bhaurao Raut.

Raut had asked what kind of relaxation in taxes the government is planning to grant the electric car giant so that they can start their manufacturing in various states here as announced. The minister informed the house that Tesla has not shown any interest in any of the government schemes for electric vehicles.

"The said company has not participated in any of our schemes, and that cleared their intentions that Tesla only wants to exploit our market to mint profit, but will refrain from setting up manufacturing units here. If they manufacture their electric cars in China, thousands of jobs will be created there, not for Indian youths here," he said.

As per the Ministry of Heavy Industries, the government has formulated a scheme, Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME India) Scheme in 2015 to promote the adoption of electric/hybrid vehicles (EVs) in the country to reduce dependency on fossil fuels.

At present, Phase-II of the FAME India Scheme is being implemented for 5 years with effect from April 12, 019 with total budgetary support of Rs 10,000 crore. Also, GST on electric vehicles has been reduced from 12 percent to 5 percent, and on chargers/charging stations for electric vehicles from 18 percent to 5 percent.

With inputs from IANS