The letter also sought the legal basis for the refund amounts since they do not conform to any stated mechanism in the rules.
SMEV had earlier offered a solution to the issue through recovery from customers directly which would have cleaned off the subsidy slate completely.
“The Ministry is in debt to OEMs to the tune of Rs 1,200 crore. If their demand for refund of earlier paid subsidies to the tune of Rs 469 crore is actualised, it would have recovered Rs 1,669 crore in all making its budget of Rs 2,000 crore for the E2W sector almost undisbursed,” a SMEV spokesperson stated.
In that case, the non-compliance would become a non-issue – although the FAME 2 scheme would have proved to be a complete non-starter, he added.