Odisha govt issues guidelines for interest-free loan to employees buying EVs

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has issued new guidelines for interest-free advance payment to state govt employees wishing to purchase two-wheeler and four-wheeler electric vehicles (EV). The Government released these guidelines in order to streamline and maintain uniformity in sanction of interest-free electric motor vehicle advance for state govt employess.

The State Government employees can only apply for the advance for the purchase of electric vehicles till December 31, 2025. The application received after the expiry of the Policy period will not be considered, the Finance Department said in the guidelines.

In a notice, the Finance department stated that the provisions / guidelines for electric vehicle advance are not being meticulously followed by the Departments while sanctioning the advance in favour of their employees.

So to streamline and maintain uniformity in procedure and to avoid consequential irregularities in sanctioning such advances, the department laid down some guidelines that have to be strictly followed by the sanctioning authorities.

Here are the guidelines:

• Only the Group-A & Group-B category of government employees can get the interest free advance for purchase of electric motor cars. They can receive a advance amount limited to 75% of the cost of the electric vehicle (Ex-showroom Price) subject to maximum of Rs 15 lakh.
• On the other hand, the interest free advance for purchase of electric two-wheelers (electric motor cycle / scooter / invalid carriages etc.) will be available to Group-C and Group-D Government employees and above. The advance amount is limited to 75% of the cost of the electric vehicle (Ex-showroom Price) subject to maximum of Rs 2 lakh.
• The advance amount will be recovered in maximum of 100 consecutive monthly instalments from subsequent months from the employees salary. Recovery of the advance will be regulated in such a manner that the same can be recovered before one year of the date of superannuation. In case, the Government employee retires or expires without payment of full amount of loan, the residual amount needs to be recovered from their arrear salary bill, leave salary bill, pension, Commutation pension or gratuity before its disbursements. If he/she resign/quits from Government Service, the amount will be recovered under OPDR Act.
• The Government servant are also allowed to repay the instalment in advance.
• The government employees will need to submit the copy of Registration Certificate, insurance and retail invoice of the vehicles to sanctioning authority after they got the advance within 3 months from the date of release of the advances.
• The Government employees who are eligible for both electric (four wheeler & two wheeler) vehicle advance can avail either of the advance at a time.

After introducing a portal for release of subsidy on purchase of electric vehicles (EVs), the State government had announced to provide interest free advance to its employees in April 2022.

The Electric Vehicle Policy 2021 had promised a slew of incentives, including interest-free advance to government employees to promote EVs in the State to control the pollution emerging from fossil fuel used in vehicles.