Meghana KandraMalaysian Government is working towards relieving tax and import duties on Electric Vehicles to decrease the price of the vehicles and encouraging consumers to buy them. Malaysian finance minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz talked during his address to Parliament this week about EV prices. The minister said, Government should exempt Evs from the Tax and import duties that are increasing their initial price and making it more expensive for a normal consumer to buy one.
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In the meeting, he also said that Electric Vehicles will be an important factor in reducing pollutants and increasing better air quality. According to a report from a Malaysian automotive news website, The politicians are proposing 100% to lift the road taxes for electric vehicles and also relieving the income tax up to 2,500 Malaysian Ringgits which is around $602 US dollars. The report said, “On the cost of purchasing and installing, renting or taking up hire purchase facilities, as well as subscription payments of EV charging facilities.” So, these are not the minimal reductions and Malaysia is in the complete motive of increasing the usage of Evs.
April the Malaysian Government has previously discussed the initiating programs of EVs already. During that time, Malaysia Automotive, Robotics, and IoT institute CEO Datuk Madani Sahari said that there has been a draft in the policies on Evs, which also included the proposals of the finance minister Tengku Zafrul mentioned. Madani said that there will be complete relief to the EVs from the Taxes, Excise and import duties, and 100% removal of road and sales taxes on applicable vehicles.
Tax relief details
About the income tax reliefs, International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Azmin Ali proposed that the relief in the income tax could prove extra incentives for the consumers to purchase Electric Vehicles which are environmentally friendly along with the support to the EV company in establishing charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. It seems that there will be tax relief only when the companies purchase and install an EV charging point.
Malaysian current vehicle market is very small. There were only the Nissan LEAF, the Mini Electric, BMW i3, and Porsche Taycan available for purchase as of September 2021. If the discussed proposals are approved there will be a 20% reduction in the prices of these available vehicles. As Ev companies are also asking many countries to give relief from the taxes which are affecting the actual price of the vehicles, this step from the Malaysian Government will be a huge pavement for the electric vehicle market to enter the country.