Maharashtra EV policy may be his first policy failure in 36 years, says Rajiv Bajaj over unpaid subsidies

Bajaj Auto Managing Director Rajiv Bajaj, in an interview with CNBC-TV18, said he fears the Maharashtra government’s EV policy could be a policy failure. “In my 36 years, I have never seen a policy failure but I am afraid that I will see it with Maharashtra government’s EV policy,” he said.He said Bajaj Auto has received only a fraction of the subsidies due from the Maharashtra government and believes the remainder may not be paid.

He said “subsidies slow innovation and cushion inefficiency,” adding that he was glad subsidies on electric three-wheelers have ended and hopes they end for two-wheelers by March.
Bajaj said the company has stabilised production of electric two-wheelers at about 30,000 per month and plans to raise it to 40,000 per month by April. He said the electric two-wheeler industry is already consolidating, with the top five players accounting for 80%.He said the company’s PLI claims will total about ₹1,000 crore, of which over ₹642 crore has already been granted.

Bajaj said ABS regulation will affect only 25% of the two-wheeler industry and “will not resolve road fatalities.” He said the company’s market share in the 125cc-plus segment is about 22–24%, around 2% higher than two months ago.

Bajaj, on the 50% cut in the Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) scheme, said, “Well it can only have a negative impact.” He said the government needs to ensure greater ease of doing business across labour, legislation, land, logistics and electricity, adding that it remains harder to do business in India than in markets such as Thailand and Vietnam.

He said RoDTEP is not a subsidy but a mechanism to offset inefficiencies exporters face in the operating ecosystem.

“So frankly for an exporter like Bajaj Auto whose export EBITDA is way above its corporate EBITDA of 20% and the way the rupee is depreciating it is not the most significant thing but for a lot of the other people who are especially in a B2B kind of business who do not have price elasticity… So really, I have to say, this that there’s some mantris and some babus that are really brain dead out there.”

He expects export performance to be around 600,000 units in Q4, similar to Q3, and hopes to increase exports to 250,000 units from 200,000 units in the next few months. He said sales to Sri Lanka were 10,000 units per month.

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