Swimming against the current on EV adoption

Amidst the International Monetary Fund’s concerns about the government’s incentivising policy to promote environment-friendly automobiles, manufacturers seemingly compete to produce hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), diverging from the global trend towards pure electric vehicles. Auto stakeholders appear concerned over reservations shown by the IMF on tax relief proposed in the New Electric Vehicle Policy (NEVP) 2025-30 when Pakistan gears up for an EV revolution to come on a par with developing countries. The IMF reportedly asked the government not to incentivise the EV revolution by reducing taxes and tariffs. Sources said that the Fund believes that the EV sector should be given some subsidy separately instead of reducing taxes and duties on EVs to avoid any policy distortion.