New Delhi. The Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) scheme may be announced afresh to promote the sale of electric vehicles in the budget to be presented for the current financial year 2024-25. The Ministry of Heavy Industries has also requested the Finance Ministry to continue this scheme.

An allocation of Rs 2671 crore for FAME-3 was announced in the interim budget presented in February for the current financial year, but sources say that an amount of Rs 10,000 crore may be allocated for FAME-3 in the full budget. Under the FAME-2 scheme, which ended on March 31, no subsidy was given on the purchase of electric passenger cars, but electric cars may be included in the FAME-3 scheme.

Fame-2 was started in 2019

The FAME-2 scheme was started in the year 2019 and till March this year, Rs 11,500 crore was allocated under this scheme. Under this scheme, subsidy was being given on the purchase of electric two-wheelers, three-wheelers, buses, and cars used in government offices. After the end of the FAME-2 scheme in March, the Electric Mobility Promotion Scheme (EMPS) was implemented by the Ministry of Heavy Industries with an allocation of Rs 500 crore, so that electric two-wheelers and three-wheelers continue to get some subsidy.

Under the FAME-2 scheme, a subsidy of up to Rs 22,500 was being given on the purchase of two-wheelers, which was reduced to Rs 10,000 per two-wheeler under EMPS. As a result, the sale of electric two-wheelers fell to 64,000 units in April this year, while 1,36,000 units were sold in March this year. In June this year too, sales of all types of electric vehicles declined as compared to May this year.

Subsidy on EV may increase

The sale of all types of electric vehicles in June this year was 1,06,081 units while 1,23,704 units were sold in May this year. According to sources, government subsidy on electric vehicles may increase again under FAME-3 because the government wants to take the share of electric vehicles to 30 percent in total vehicle sales by the year 2030, while this share in the sales of the first three months of the current financial year is close to seven percent.