EV policy to be taken up in ECC within 10 days

Investors await notification of policy before making investment

KARACHI: Adviser to Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam has said that within the next 10 days, authorities will take the electric vehicle policy to the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC).

In early November 2019, the federal cabinet approved an electric vehicle policy aimed at having 30% of vehicles in the country run on electricity instead of fossil fuel. However, investors have been waiting for a notification of the policy, so that they could roll out their investment plans.

While visiting the plant of Crown Electric Vehicle Company, Aslam said the authorities were working on the policy and in a week to 10 days they would bring the matter to the ECC.

He said two-thirds of air pollution came from vehicles, which could be reduced and cities would become clean. On the other hand, the cost of electric vehicles was low, which would increase savings for the poor segment of society.

New player enters electric vehicle segment

Fuel imports comprised a big chunk of Pakistan's import bill but recently the Ministry of Energy told USAID that Pakistan could save $2 billion by substituting oil with electricity as vehicle fuel, said the minister.

Pakistan had 4,000 megawatts of extra electricity capacity, which was not being used and the country was losing money as the government had promised electricity producers that it would pay them even if there was no use of their capacity. Electric vehicles would provide users for that extra capacity, said the minister.

"With these benefits, this revolution is in the offing and nobody can stop it," he remarked. "For the evaluation of incentive packages of the electric vehicle policy, we will go to the ECC in the next few days so that financiers, who have made investments in this environment-friendly segment, can start working," he said.

It was a great new market where the government and private sector were on the same page and "we are sure this will bring job opportunities to the youth and low-cost and environment-friendly vehicles to the masses," he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 29^th, 2020.

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