New Delhi: In a plea to the Centre, Maharashtra's environment minister Aaditya Uddhav Thackeray asked for lowering of tax rates on imported cars in the Budget on February 1 citing demands from electric carmakers like Tesla.
Maharashtra remains a leading auto manufacturing hub for domestic carmakers including Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra. Both automakers are investing in manufacturing electric cars locally and are against Tesla's pressure on lowering taxes.
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In the letter addressed to the finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, Thackeray asked lowering taxes for a limited period of time would boost India's supply chain ecosystem and manufacturing process for electric vehicles (EVs).
"Pioneering companies like Tesla, Rivian, Audi, BMW among many others must be given a time-bound concessionary customs rate for the import of vehicles," stated the letter released on the micro-blogging platform.
Thackeray suggested lowering the tax rate for a maximum period of three years or for a defined number of vehicles for any company that wishes to import EVs or auto components to build such cars in India.
As of now, India levies import duties as high as 100 percent on high-end cars, including EVs, in a bid to protect and promote the local industry. In a bid to enter the Indian market, Tesla has been pitching to lower the rate to 40 percent.
Maharashtra's plea has come after a tweet by Tesla CEO Elon Musk last week in which he said the company was "still working through a lot of challenges with the government" ahead of a possible launch in India.
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