No road tax for electric, hybrid vehicles in Chandigarh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 25

To encourage residents to adopt green technology, the UT Administration has exempted electric and hybrid vehicles, including two-wheelers, from paying road tax in the city for a period of five years.

According to a notification issued by the Transport Department, the administration has exempted all categories of battery-operated vehicles, electric and hybrid vehicles (strong hybrid and plug-in hybrid), in the city from paying the road tax for a period of five years from March 18, 2023 to March 17, 2028.

Green overdrive

• Road tax exemption is for all battery-operated vehicles i.e. electric/hybrid (strong hybrid and plug-in hybrid) up to March 17, 2028
• UT levies 6% road tax on purchase of new vehicles; this means, for an electric or hybrid vehicle priced at Rs 20 lakh, the owner can save Rs 1.2 lakh
• Under the EV Policy-2022, UT has offered incentives ranging from Rs 3,000 to Rs 2 lakh to first 42,000 buyers across all categories till September 19, 2027

The administration had notified the Electric Vehicle (EV) Policy-2022 to make Chandigarh a “Model EV City” by achieving zero emission vehicles (ZEV) among all Indian cities by the end of the policy period of five years. After implementation of the policy from September 20 last year, the administration had offered a number of incentives to buyers.

The direct incentive will remain in operation for the policy period, which is five years or till the time the administration decides otherwise.

Those purchasing a new electric car or hybrid vehicle between September 20, 2022, and September 19, 2027, will be eligible for direct incentive, subject to the number of electric vehicles to be incentivised as per the policy.

However, the incentive is not applicable to government vehicles.

Apart from a full waiver on road tax, the UT has offered incentives in the range from Rs 3,000 to Rs 2 lakh to first 42,000 buyers of EVs across all categories during the policy period. The aim is to encourage people to switch to EVs for lesser carbon footprint and make Chandigarh carbon neutral at the earliest.