Its president, Dennis Chuah, hoped that financing would be made available to EV companies as the green technology financing scheme, offering loans guaranteed by the government, is finally extended to the EV sector.
The government will guarantee only up to 60% of the loan under the scheme.
Consumers will benefit from an extension on the waiver of import duty on EV components till Dec 31, 2027, an exemption of excise duty and sales tax for completely-knocked-down units in the same period and a waiver of import and excise duty for completely-built-up units until Dec 31, 2025.
The government has also offered an exemption on statutory income of manufacturers of EV charging equipment for the 2023 to 2032 years of assessment.
Another incentive is tax deductions of up to RM300,000 for companies that have EVs in their fleet.
Chuah said this would encourage businesses to acquire EVs for their fleets given that it would now cost them less.
However, he said, the government had not included several other incentives that the industry had sought.
Lack of a clear policy
Chuah said there should be a clear policy on EVs. “It is not clear if the government is able to extend the tax exemption to fully imported vehicles (beyond 2025),” he said.
“On top of that, (there is the issue of) infrastructure … whether or not the government can support the (increase in) electricity usage for EVs,” he said.
The incentives for EVs included measures by Tenaga Nasional Bhd to instal charging facilities at 70 locations at a cost of RM90 million.
However, there was no mention of how structural barriers to building infrastructure would be overcome.
Gentari Sdn Bhd deputy CEO Shahrizal Yang Razalli had previously pointed out that electrification was a major obstacle to installing chargers.
“Large pockets of the country don’t have enough power to support the DC chargers,” he said at the EVCON23.
“Infrastructure development is key, (and one method) of incentivising critical infrastructure upgrades is through tax breaks,” Shahrizal said.