Relief for premium EV buyers: Maharashtra scraps plan of imposing 6% tax on electric vehicles priced above ₹30 lakh

Maharashtra government has shelved the proposal to levy a six per cent tax on high-end electric vehicles in the state. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday announced in the legislative council that the state government won’t implement its proposed six per cent tax on electric vehicles priced above ₹30 lakh. He stated that the move of taxing the premium electric vehicles will unlikely generate enough revenue and also undermine the government's EV push, which is why the proposal has been scrapped.

Just a few days ago, the Maharashtra government proposed a six per cent tax on electric vehicles priced more than ₹30 lakh in the budget for the financial year 2025-26. This caused quite a concern in the auto industry and among the potential electric car buyers as well. The proposal was aimed at generating more revenue for government coffers. On the other side, there was concern that this move would go against the central government's efforts to promote non-polluting electric vehicles through various incentives and would be counter-productive as well as contradict the broader objective of encouraging clean mobility.

Speaking at the legislative council, Maharashtra CM said that the government has concluded that the tax won't generate significant revenue. “It could send a wrong signal about our commitment to electric mobility. Therefore, the state government will not go ahead with the 6 per cent tax on high-end electric vehicles," PTI quoted him saying. He further said that the state is becoming the national capital of electric vehicles. “Maharashtra is becoming the national capital of electric vehicles. This is primarily because significant EV manufacturing plants are being established in Pune and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar," he stated further adding, “The contribution of vehicles (running on petrol or diesel) to air pollution is the highest. A shift towards electric vehicles will help reduce this problem."

The CM also said that both private and public transport sectors are increasingly adopting electric vehicles and more than 2,500 electric buses are being added to the public transport sector in the state in a phased manner. "The number of electric vehicles being registered in the state is steadily rising. Over 50 per cent of newly registered vehicles are now EVs," he said. The government was also building supporting infrastructure, including a large-scale EV charging network across the state, the CM said.

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