Senator seeks tax incentives for electric vehicles

Senator Ralph Recto on Thursday said that the country should shift to electric vehicles to end its overdependence on oil products, whose prices keep rising. “With soaring oil prices and with a downstream oil industry that can’t be trusted with its price hike computations, there’s really no recourse but to go electric to save oil money and save the environment," Recto, chairman of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, said in a statement released Thursday. He said that his committee will soon report out to the Senate plenary a consolidated measure that would give tax incentives to people or groups who will import, convert, manufacture or assemble the pioneering fleet of electric vehicles in the country, including hybrid and other motor vehicles using alternative fuel. Recto explained that an electric vehicle may refer to any vehicle that uses electric motors, while a hybrid vehicle may refer to any vehicle that combines the use of internal combustion engine with a battery-powered motor. “Other countries like Israel and China are already declaring freedom from petroleum dependence in the next three or four decades, we want to start the ball rolling by paving the way for a legislation that would fast track our shift to e-vehicles," he said. Recto explained that e-vehicle proponents shall be exempted from paying the Motor Vehicle User's Charge, excise taxes, and VAT for nine years to bring down the cost of importing and converting e-vehicles and their hybrid types, in the process also lowering the price for consumers. On the other hand, the "non-tax" incentives shall include their non-inclusion in number or color coding, a special priority lane, and mandatory parking facilities in future commercial and public establishments. If the draft measure is approved, he said that the Land Transportation Office would also be required to issue special license plates to e-vehicles. He added that business owners whose establishments do not have areas designated to e-vehicles will not be issued building permits. Recto said that his co-authors in the consolidated measure are Senators Juan Miguel Zubiri (Senate Bill 1445), Miriam Defensor-Santiago (SB 2460 and 2529), and Antonio Trillanes IV (SB 2598), who have filed similar measures on the matter. Recto, for his part, filed SB 2536. — TJD, GMA News