As I see the Lease and the specifics of how it is executed is different either by leasing company or the agreement between the employer and the leasing company.
In my company its finance leases and works very similar to a loan. (except, for the tenure of the lease the vehicle will be in the name of my company)
The leasing company has little or no involvement in the running and maintenance of the car, unless you are doing a modification that will change the configuration of the car. Which I did in my case by retro fitting LPG kit, they had to issue a NOC (even insurance company had to) for RTO to endorse it on the RC book (now card), except for that I had no interaction with leasing company for the entire tenure.
I suppose the ones where leasing company is managing the fleet the terms of service and the exit policy and buyback option of the vehicle is different...
Interestingly in my company, this policy is not extended to employees in MH, not sure the reason though.
I see two disadvantages with lease:
1. major one being, if you leave the company during the tenure of the lease, you end up doing a pre-closure and may have to pay some penalty.
(dont know if the new company also has a lease policy and tied up with same leasing company are there any benefits)
2. there is no part payment option where you could save on the overall outflow, however two options available are to do a down payment upfront or complete (pre-)colsure when ever you want.
I just completed a lease and planning a new one. The completed Lease was on my Santro AT: (all figures rounded to nearest thousand)
Lease Amount: 4,36,000
Interest: 12%
Total Rental Paid: 4,67,000 over three years with monthly rent/emi of 13,000
RV + VAT Paid: 89,000 (RV amount is fixed at 20% of lease amount + VAT at the beginning of the leases)
So total outflow: 5,57,000
There is a fringe benefit tax of 9% on the rent/emi (that do not reflect on the payslip so not I-T tax) amount so you dont exactly save 30% on tax. Also usually interest on leases is 1% more than the loan.
So you lose say 10% of 30% tax benefit. So the 20% of the rentals paid is: 93,000
Now pushing the savings a bit further, the opportunity cost of not paying the down payment in the case of lease (typically 15% in loans): 65,000.
There are other high return investment tools and perhaps businessmen are able to do better, but choose a FD at a simple interest of 7% (the least I have seen) you gain: (P*T*R/100) 13,000.
So over all you save: 1,07,000
So my actual outflow towards my Santro AT: 4,50,000 (which was the onroad price quoted by the dealer when I bought it)
If I had gone for a loan I would have paid around 5,30,000 + the tax + loss on down payment. Which would have been at least 1.5 lacs more than what I have paid now.
Now, I am at the door holding the knob for the next lease
-- Scorpio AT + 4x4 + Air bags:
Lease Amount: 14,57,000
Interest: 13%
Total Rentals, I would pay at the end of 3 years (rent/emi of 43,000):15,97,000
RV (20%) + VAT: 2,98,000
Total Out Flow: 18,95,000
Savings on TAX at 20%: 3,11,000
Savings on the Opportunity Cost of down payment 7% simple interest: 45,000
Total Savings: 3,57,000
Actual Outflow towards new car: 15,37,000
If I do the same with a loan I will end up paying around 19 lacs (total emi + tax for the emi + possible savings on the down payment)
Here again only catch being - "what if" I change my job in between.
Otherwise Lease works great!