Govt to launch PLI scheme for AC, LED lights on 1 Apr
NEW DELHI: The commerce and industry ministry will formally launch the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for air conditioners and LED lights worth ₹6,238 crore on 1 April, with the finance ministry approving the proposal.
Last March, the government announced PLI schemes for three sectors—mobile phone manufacturing and specified electronics components, drug intermediates and active pharmaceutical ingredients and medical devices—worth ₹51,355 crore.
In November, it added 10 more sectors to the list with additional committed incentive worth ₹1.46 lakh crore in a bid to boost local manufacturing.
“We are quite hopeful that before end of this financial year (on 31 March), all PLI schemes would have received cabinet approval and they would be notified. We have done extensive stakeholder consultations with air-conditioner and LED players,” DPIIT secretary Guruprasad Mohapatra told reporters on Friday.
Mohapatra said PLI is a game changer in the country where the focus is manufacturing in India, not only for India but also for the world. “So, India can manufacture of certain quality and scale which will make it a global champion. We are actively monitoring about 1,000 companies in the world which are either already in India and trying to expand or are thinking of entering India. We will handhold them through the investment promotion division of this ministry, Invest India and project development cells of
ministries,” he added.
Over a period of five years, the scheme is expected to lead to incremental production worth ₹1.7 lakh crore , exports worth ₹64,400 crore with additional employment generation of over one lakh jobs. The scheme is also expected to generate revenue for the government through direct tax and goods and services tax worth ₹11,300 crore and ₹38,000 crore respectively over the five-year period.
The scheme for white goods will extend an incentive of 4-6% on incremental sales over the base year (2019-20) of goods manufactured in India and covered under target segments to eligible companies, subject to fulfilling the threshold conditions of cumulative incremental investment over the base year as defined and incremental sales of manufactured goods (as distinct from traded goods) over the base year for the respective year, for a period of five years subsequent to the base year and
one year of gestation period.
The scheme will be launched on 1 April and will remain open for applications for a period of six months initially which may be extended if required, DPIIT said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week invited global firms to take advantage of the ₹1.97 lakh crore PLI schemes and expand their manufacturing in India, assuring that India’s aspiration to become self-reliant will strengthen globalism. “We are moving ahead with the promise of becoming self-reliant. India’s aspiration to become self-reliant will strengthen globalism in new ways. India has the capacity, capability as well as reliability to strengthen the global supply chain. India has a very large consumer base and the more it expands, the better it is for the global economy,” Modi told top global CEOs at the Davos Dialogue 2021 through a video conference organized by the World Economic Forum.