Haryana govt offers industries VAT relief on PNG and CNG gensets

The Haryana government on Saturday announced that it will provide industrial units in the state with a 50% rebate in value-added tax (VAT) to replace diesel gensets with natural gas ones. The scheme will be applicable to all industries, including MSMEs, and will be effective for two years from the date of notification, a government spokesperson said.

The operation of diesel gensets has been banned in the National Capital Region (NCR) by the Centre for Air Quality Management (CAQM) after the introduction of stage two of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) as air quality deteriorates with the onset of winters. The ban has, however, not fared well with local industrialists who contended that neither infrastructure supplying natural gas nor retrofitted gensets are available at present.

The Air Quality Index (AQI) in the city was recorded at 206 on Saturday which was in the poor category. The AQI on Friday was also in the poor category with a reading of 242.

A government spokesperson said that the decision to provide the VAT rebate was taken during a meeting of the standing finance committee chaired by chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar in Chandigarh on Saturday.

According to P Raghavendra Rao, chairman, Haryana State Pollution Control Board, the move will incentivise industry owners to switch to cleaner fuels. “Once the notification is issued, our department will also reach out to industry owners and help them take advantage of the scheme. We are committed to reducing pollution and measures needed to help industry and other establishments achieve this goal will be adopted,” he said.

City-based industrialists said that the move will benefit industry owners but asked the government to build infrastructure for PNG and CNG supply at the earliest without which the scheme will not work. “The relief in VAT announced by the government is a good decision but the companies supplying natural gas must be asked to create adequate infrastructure and ensure plug and play connections are made available for industries,” JN Mangla, president, Gurgaon Industrial Association, said.

The standing finance committee also decided to declare Gurugram and Faridabad as model electric mobility (EM) cities with phase-wise goals to adopt electric vehicles (EVs) and charging infrastructure to achieve 100% e-mobility. The committee also approved a subsidy of ₹164.66 crore per year to electric vehicle manufacturing companies under various heads, as part of the Haryana Electric Vehicle (EV) Policy 2022, a government spokesperson said.

During the meeting, Khattar was apprised of the EV Policy which aims to protect the environment, reduce carbon footprint, and make Haryana an EV manufacturing hub, ensuring skill development and encouraging the uptake of EV vehicles and research and development in EV technology.