Vakrangee To Set Up Electric Vehicle Charging Points Across India

Through its Nextgen Vakrangee Kendra outlets, Vakrangee will be setting up electric vehicle (EV) charging facilities across India.

The company has 3,504 Nextgen Vakrangee Kendra outlets spread across 19 states with 68 percent of these outlets in Tier 5 and Tier 6 cities. In its BSE filing, Vakrangee said that it plans on increasing the number of these outlets to 75,000 by financial year 2021-22 and to 3,00,000 outlets by financial year 2024-25.

"For all operators who want to set up electric vehicle services in India, It will make sense for them to leverage our charging infrastructure rather than building one of their own. We are building a large charging footprint on a pan-India basis through our network of Nextgen Vakrangee Kendra outlets," the company said.

Shares of Vakrangee Ltd jumped by 5 percent in trade on Monday morning to hit an intraday high of Rs 37.90, before declining. The company is into the business of providing last-mile retail outlets to deliver real-time banking and financial services, ATM, insurance, e-governance, e-commerce and logistics services to the unserved rural, semi-urban and urban markets. The "Vakrangee Kendras" are assisted digital convenience stores which act as the "one-stop shops" for availing various services and products.

In Budget 2019, the government proposed to provide additional income tax deduction of Rs 1.5 lakh on the interest paid towards loans taken to purchase electric vehicles as part of efforts to promote the adoption of eco-friendly mobility solutions. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the initiative would lead to a benefit of around Rs 2.5 lakh for a customer during the entire duration of the loan.

Further, the GST rates on such vehicles have been lowered from 12 to 5 percent.