The budget speech landed on June 11 in Bangladesh’s parliament, and it flipped a pricing regime that had priced electric vehicles out of most citizens’ reach. Finance minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, laying out tax and tariff plans for the fiscal year starting July 1, proposed zero tariffs on imported electric buses and trucks, on the machinery of charging stations, and on solar power production, while pushing the tax incidence on diesel, petrol and octane vehicles sharply upward. The previous government had taxed EVs into luxury territory; this package, by the ministry’s own framing, starts undoing that, because as the minister put it, “At present, high tax burdens make electric vehicles unaffordable for most citizens”.
The specifics are blunt. Electric buses and trucks enter at full exemption, value-added tax aside, a facility the minister proposed extending “until 30 June, 2030.” Charging infrastructure gets the sharpest cut: “A nationwide charging network is essential for the smooth operation of electric vehicles. To support this, I propose reducing the total tax incidence on EV chargers and charging stations from 39.75% to 0%,” Chowdhury told parliament. Plug-in hybrids up to 1,800 cc keep a full withdrawal of regulatory duty, registration fees on electric private cars fall, the solar sector enjoys a 0% tax rate through 2035, and a 5% rebate applies to solar electricity bills. On the other side of the ledger, fuel-powered vehicles of 1,200-1,600 cc now carry a tariff of nearly 156%, up from 132%, a deliberate widening of the price gap between the old technology and the new.
The data shows why Dhaka is moving. Transport produces 9% of the country’s greenhouse gases, and diesel buses and trucks by the thousands push the air in Dhaka and Chattogram into the dangerous range most days. UN estimates put the annual death toll from air-pollution complications above 235,000, with hundreds of thousands more suffering asthma and other respiratory diseases. Mirza Shawkat Ali, who directs the climate change cell at the Department of Environment, tied the package to the country’s formal climate pledge: “Bangladesh always prioritizes adaptation, but now we are going for mitigation as well.” The stated targets are a fleet a quarter electric among buses and trucks, and 30% electric among private cars, by 2035.
Passage is close to certain; the ruling camp commands better than a two-thirds majority in the one-chamber legislature. Implementation is the harder half. Provat Saha, who taught engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology before retiring, called the package “a laudable move by the government because we, someday, must switch to zero-emission technology,” then added the catch: “But I think these measures would not suffice to curb air pollution in Bangladesh.” The worst offenders in the sector, the big lorries and heavy trucks, have no electric equivalents on sale there in volume.
The operators’ arithmetic is harsher still. Saiful Islam of the Bangladesh Bus-Truck Owners Association welcomed the direction and listed the missing pieces: no domestic manufacture, imported vehicles at roughly triple the price of diesel equivalents, an assumed economic life of 10 years, no charging network, no technicians, no spare-parts chain, and fares that may have to rise to cover it. Then came the passenger problem: “Currently, a bus needs five minutes to refuel in a station. But if a bus takes 30 minutes for recharging, the passengers will not accept it.” His bottom line was direct: “Unless the government gives us policy support, we cannot go ahead with operating electric buses and trucks”. Anisur Rahman, who teaches marketing at Dhaka University, said the government should have run a feasibility study first, arguing passengers will absorb higher prices only if service visibly improves.
What is now on the table is a price signal, not a fleet: zero tariffs from July 1, near-total taxes on the combustion alternative, and a 2030 deadline for the imports window, with the first test being whether chargers, mechanics and spare parts arrive before the patience of bus operators runs out.
Sources
- Bangladesh EV tax reform: slashing EV taxes in green push
- Bangladesh unveils sweeping EV incentives to cut emissions and pollution
