Staff Reporter

In support of the government’s initiative to promote electric vehicles (EV) as the preferred mode of urban transport system, the Bank of Bhutan Ltd launched a special EV loan scheme for taxis yesterday.

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) is implementing a pilot project to roll out 300 EVs with a provision of 20 percent subsidy and access to 70 percent loan from the financial institutes (FIs).

Last year, the Royal Monetary Authority (RMA) approved access to 70 percent loan for EV from all the FIs.

The special loan for EV was launched with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Taxi Association, Project Office for EV under PMO and the bank.

Under the MoU, the bank agreed to provide 70 percent loan to the taxi drivers without collateral for a period of seven years. However, taxi drivers will have to form a group of three people in order to access loans under the new scheme called “group guaranteed loan” in lieu of collateral requirement.