Indonesia to spend 456 million USD to subsidise electric motorcycle sales, conversion

Indonesia’s Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati on March 20 said that Indonesia’s Government will spend 7 trillion rupiahs (nearly 456 million USD) from its State’s budget to subsidise the sales of new electric motorcycles and the conversion of combustion engine motorcycles in two years 2023 and 2024.

Illustrative photo. (Photo:thejakartapost.com)

Speaking at a press conference, Sri Mulyani said that the subsidies will cover the sales and conversion of a total of 1 million electric motorcycles including 800,000 new ones and 200,000 combustion engine motorcycles to be converted.

According to her, the Ministry of Industry will manage the support of the programme for new purchases while the Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) will manage the programme to convert conventional motorbikes to electric ones.

The new purchase support programme will be for micro-, small-, and medium-sized businesses that are eligible for support of loans, production, and salary as well as those with monthly electricity consumption of 450-600 VA. The programme is also only applicable to domestically produced vehicles with a localisation rate of at least 40%.

Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan emphasised that the development of the electric vehicle ecosystem is a strategic area with great potential to support sustainable development, promote innovation and accelerate decarbonisation in Indonesia.

He said he hopes that the financial support programme and other ones will help the country’s transportation industry to be transformed into a greener one./.

VNA