Indonesia to spend 456 million USD to subsidise electric motorcycle sales, conversion
Indonesia’s Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati on March 20 said that Indonesia’s Government will spend 7 trillion rupiahs (nearly 456 million USD) from its State’s budget to subsidise the sales of new electric motorcycles and the conversion of combustion engine motorcycles in two years 2023 and 2024.
Jakarta (VNA)🐼 – Indonesia’s Finance Minister SriMulyani Indrawati on March 20 said that Indonesia’s Government will spend 7trillion rupiahs (nearly 456 million USD) from its State’s budget to subsidise the sales of new electric motorcycles and the conversion of combustion enginemotorcycles in two years 2023 and 2024.
Speaking at a press conference, Sri Mulyani said that thesubsidies will cover the sales and conversion of a total of 1 millionelectric motorcycles including 800,000 new ones and 200,000 combustion enginemotorcycles to be converted. According to her, the Ministry of Industry will manage thesupport of the programme for new purchases while the Ministry of State-OwnedEnterprises (BUMN) will manage the programme to convert conventional motorbikesto electric ones. The new purchase support programme will be for micro-, small-,and medium-sized businesses that are eligible for support of loans, production,and salary as well as those with monthly electricity consumption of 450-600 VA.The programme is also only applicable to domestically produced vehicles with alocalisation rate of at least 40%. Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and InvestmentLuhut Binsar Pandjaitan emphasised that the development of the electric vehicleecosystem is a strategic area with great potential to support sustainabledevelopment, promote innovation and accelerate decarbonisation in Indonesia. He said he hopes that the financial support programme and other oneswill help the country’s transportation industry to be transformed into agreener one./.
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