E-vehicle group wants House to name reps to bicameral committee on AFVI bill

The Electric Vehicle Alliance on Tuesday called on the House of Representatives to nominate members to the bicameral conference committee that will reconcile the different provisions of the alternative fuel vehicles bills passed by the two houses of Congress. SB 2856, or the Electric, Hybrid and other Alternative Fuel Vehicles Incentives Act of 2011, was passed on third and final reading by the Senate on January 28. The House passed its version of the bill, HB 5460, in March 2012. "Having gone through the far more difficult process of committee hearings and plenary debate, the House will have a lot of explaining to do to the public why it failed to undertake such an easy task. The Senate has already selected from among its ranks and all the House needs to do is to choose its champions," Partnership for Clean Air (PCA) executive director Victoria Segovia said in a statement. The PCA is one of the organizations that formed EVA with the Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines. According to both versions of the bill, the manufacture or assembly of completely knocked-down (CKD) parts of electric, hybrid and other alternative fuel vehicles, including the conversion of vehicles into electric, hybrid and other alternative fuel vehicles, will be exempt from the payment of excise taxes and duties for nine years from the effectivity of the Act. Both versions also suspend the imposition of Value Added Tax (VAT) on the purchase and importation of raw materials, spare parts, components and capital equipment used in the manufacture or assembly of electric, hybrid and other alternative fuel vehicles for nine years from the effectivity of the Act. The bills also state that the importation of completely built units (CBUs) of electric, hybrid and other alternative fuel vehicles shall be exempt from the payment of excise taxes and duties, though the bills differ on the number of years. The Senate bill also proposes alternative-fuel vehicles' priority in registration and issuance of plate number, as well as their exemption from the Unified Vehicular Volume Reduction Program, or the traffic Number-Coding Scheme in Metro Manila. — BM, GMA News