Tax Holiday Offered to Battery Makers to Increase Production of Electric Cars

JAKARTA. The government is considering to provide a tax holiday to battery makers to increase the production of electric cars in the country.

“We hope that with such incentive, investors accelerate the development of the battery industry,” said Harjanto, the Industry Ministry’s metal, machinery, transportation and electronics director general, in Jakarta on Tuesday.

He said several investors from China, Japan and South Korea had expressed interest in constructing battery factories in Indonesia. He declined to name the potential investors.

Harjanto said that the fiscal inventive for battery makers was needed to encourage the development of electric vehicles. He explained that the battery was the core component of electric vehicles.

 

Therefore, he added, the government encouraged growth in the battery industry. “We talk about electric cars, but if we still import the battery, all our efforts are pointless,” the official said as reported by komaps.com.

Previously, Industry Minister Airlangga Hartarto said fiscal incentives were an important part of the development of the electric car industry because, without them, the prices of the cars would be about 30 percent higher than regular cars.

Indonesia aims to phase out the use of vehicles that use fossil-fuel by 2040.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2018/07/11/tax-holiday-offered-to-battery-makers-to-increase-production-of-electric-cars.html