Govt e-Marketplace may drive new competition for EESL
Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL), which is in process of buying 10,000 electric cars from Tata Motors and M&M through the biggest tender for electric vehicles, may soon have a new competitor.
The draft auto policy has suggested the use of the government e-Marketplace (GeM) portal to aggregate all green vehicle orders from government departments to help in bulk procurement. Besides electric vehicles, hybrids also fall in the green segment, though it attracts much higher tax. The government is likely to approve the draft norms soon.
According to the draft, by 2023, at least one fifth of the new vehicles procured by central and state governments, and 50 per cent of those bought by municipal corporations in metros, must run on green technology. By 2030, the share of green vehicles for central and state governments is proposed at 75 per cent and the same for municipal corporations at 100 per cent. The GeM portal should aggregate all green vehicle orders from government departments with standard specifications and enable bulk procurement, the draft said.
EESL welcomed more players in the space. “We welcome the decision to have targets for government departments. There are many ways in which these vehicles can be procured. It is not necessary that EESL alone deals with bulk electric vehicle demand from government agencies. A single entity doing the procurement is not a good idea,” said Saurabh Kumar, managing director, EESL.
The GeM has already listed e-car as a new product on its portal.