Revolt Intellicorp, one of the seven companies accused of violating the phased manufacturing program guidelines under the Rs 10,000-crore FAME-II scheme, has repaid a claimed subsidy of Rs 50.02 crore along with interest to the government.
Hanif Qureshi, joint secretary in the Ministry of Heavy Industries, confirmed the repayment and said the ministry would give “a few more weeks” to six other companies that violated the Phased Manufacturing Program (PMP) norms.
He said notices have been issued after hearing the companies, but will be given more time as some of them say they have not violated the norms and will have to submit documents validating their claims.
Besides Revolt Intellicorp, the six other companies that violated the norms were Hero Electric, Okinawa Autotech, Ampere Vehicles (Greaves Cotton), Benling India, Amo Mobility and Lohia Auto.
“We will give them a few more weeks. They will still be given 2-3 chances if they want to submit some documents. Otherwise, we will initiate legal proceedings,” Qureshi said on Thursday. He said that after that the recovery process would be started. ,
He said the amount of subsidy “wrongly claimed” by seven companies under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid and) Electric Vehicles (FAME-II) amounts to Rs 469 crore.
“We have received a check for Rs 50.2 crore from Revolt Intellicorp, which has been encashed today (Thursday),” Qureshi said.
The ministry asked testing agencies Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) and International Center for Automotive Technology (ICAT) to probe whether PMP localization guidelines are being followed by 13 companies after receiving complaints that they Importing components for their electric vehicles on a large scale in violation of norms. Under FAME-II scheme.
“The testing agencies submitted 13 reports to us. Out of the 13 companies, the testing agencies said six were found to be complying with the guidelines, but seven have violated by importing (components) and falsely claiming that they have manufactured in India. Have done,” Qureshi said.
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