Tax perks for electric vehicles readied

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) expects to finish within the year an incentive package for electric vehicle manufacturers, a top official said.

Trade and Industry Undersecretary Rafaelita Aldaba told reporters on Wednesday that the package could include a temporary zero tariff for vehicle importers who plan to eventually manufacture in the country.

“If you have a manufacturing ambition, [then] you’ll get a better incentive. Well, maybe zero [tariff] for those who will commit to manufacture and then reduced rates for those who will only import,” she said.

Aldaba, a technocrat who has recently been promoted undersecretary for the DTI’s competitiveness and innovation group, said the zero tariff could last two to three years. The package is still in the works.

The short period of time for the incentive, she said, would be given for the market to form a base, after which the government could grant incentives to the assembly of electric vehicles.

Eventually, the goal is to manufacture in the country. However, she clarified that companies were not expected to do the entire vehicle here, but to at least use some locally available products like electronic parts.

“It should be finished this year,” she said, referring to the incentive package, while stressing that they still needed a lot of data to do a cost-benefit analysis.

Aldaba said this on the sidelines of the Toyota Hybrid Electric Technology Conference yesterday wherein Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. stressed the need to popularize hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) first before going full electric.

Also known as electrified vehicles, this segment is composed of a range of cars that use electricity to run, according to a presentation at the conference.

These include HEVs, which use both a battery and electric motor in addition to an engine that runs on gasoline. Toyota, for one, only sells HEVs in the Philippines.

Cutting the tariff to zero for two to three years will be a great help to the company, although a temporary relief. Currently, the import duty is at 30 percent, which gives the Toyota Prius a retail price of P2.2 million.