The bill 19,744 of Electric Transportation was approved in first debate by Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly (Congress) after two years of being in discussion.

The purpose of this bill is promoting the use of electric vehicles by making them more affordable, while also helping the environment and help the country reach its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2022, as these vehicles produce zero emissions.

The high cost of these cars is usually associated to the expensive rechargeable battery system that they use, this bill will reduce the taxes considerably offering consumers an additional incentive.

Having an electric car also translates into additional savings such as fuel and oil which will no longer be needed.
If the bill is approved in second debate by congressmen, it will make it official.

The Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) and the National Power and Light Company (CNFL) have been working on installing charging stations in different parts of the country for these type of vehicles, there is still a lot more work to be done in this aspect.

According to Luis Diego Ramírez, person in charge of electric vehicles of ICE, Costa Rica has approximately 1,200,000 cars, and out of these only 350 are electric.

The taxes that would be exempted or reduced to a certain extent would be the sales tax the customs value tax and the selective consumption tax. A percentage is deducted for the first $60,000 of the vehicle’s CIF (Cost, Insurance, Freight) value. Out of these, $30,000.00 are 100% exempted from tax. The discounts on amounts over $30,000.00 are applied according to a proposed table (See image in gallery).

“If you want to see it this way the maximum “discount” per unit, regardless of the value of the vehicle, is of $18,000 (a little over 10 million colones)”, explained Allan Blanco person in charge of Electric Transportation of the CNFL.

The tax exemptions in this project would apply for a period of 5 years since it’s estimated that in five years the prices of the cars in the market will be more accessible. When it comes to parts and assembly systems of electric cars, these would have a 10 year tax exemption.

This project applies not only to particular cars but also seeks to promote the change of the public transportation fleet, involving buses, taxis and electric train.