CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu plans to offer a raft of incentives and special sops for 3-5 years to attract electric vehicle manufacturers and allied industries to complement the central government push to 100% EV mobility in the future.The state will give investors in the electric vehicle industry the option to choose from GST refunds, capital subsidies, and payroll-based incentives in a first such offer for any sector, provided its draft electric vehicle policy gets implemented, a top government official dealing with the policy said. “On offer are special benefits for industries that come to Tamil Nadu within the first 3-5 years, a kind of an early-bird package,” the person said on conditions of anonymity.“All three options have never been put on offer before,” the official said. The first two were on offer during the recent Global Investors Meet (GIM), but we are extending all three of them to electric vehicles [manufacturers]. At the GIM, the investment needed to be Rs 500 crore for a company to get these benefits, but for EVs we are looking at a much lower slab.”To encourage electric vehicle purchase, the draft policy also suggests waiving road tax – again with a 5-year validity period – for those who buy electric passenger vehicles.The capital subsidy on offer for electric vehicle makers in the new policy could be a little more than what is on offer for traditional automobile manufacturers, and will scale even higher for battery pack makers, said another official involved in drafting the policy.The draft policy is currently under consideration of the finance department, and the final document is expected to be unveiled by the end of this month.Tamil Nadu had drawn a range of automotive manufacturers such as Hyundai, Ford, BMW, Daimler and Nissan in 1990s through value-added tax refund policies which needed an overhaul after the goods and services tax regime kicked in in July 2017.Even as it deliberates on a new industrial policy to incorporate tax refunds in the new order dominated by GST, Tamil Nadu’s efforts to draw EV manufacturers have got a leg up with Hyundai manufacturing its electric car Kona from its Chennai unit.The state government is also planning two electric vehicle parks – likely to be near Chennai and in Hosur along the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border – as a common infrastructure for vendors to EV manufacturers.Also, in the works is a venture capital fund that will be utilised to set up incubation centres for electric vehicle startups, and to fund them through equity participation.Electric vehicle startups and veterans in the traditional automobile industries believe the wheels of change will move only with charging infrastructure, given the concerns over how long an electric vehicle can go after full charge.“Range anxiety continues to be a deterrent in the adoption of EVs and the only way to build confidence among buyers is to set up a robust charging infrastructure,” said Narayan Subramaniam, founder of Ultraviolette Automotive, a TVS Motors-backed EV company. “The ideas around integrating housing and infrastructure developers in the roadmap of scaling up of EVs are a great initiative.”Ather, an electric scooter maker funded by Flipkart cofounder Sachin Bansal, has suggested reversing the inverted duty structure prevailing in electric vehicles as GST on inputs and raw material are at 18%, but the output vehicle will draw only 5%, resulting in working capital blockage.