The Centre’s production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes across 14 sectors to boost manufacturing have attracted investments to the tune of ₹1.61 lakh crore and generated sales worth ₹14 lakh crore, according to the Ministry of Commerce.
The government has disbursed incentives of about ₹14,020 crore under PLI schemes for 10 sectors, which include largescale electronics manufacturing (LSEM), IT hardware, bulk drugs, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, telecom and networking products, the Ministry said.
The statement was in response to a Reuters report which claimed that the government had decided not to extend the PLI scheme beyond the 14 pilots sectors as the participating firms had either failed to kickstart production or failed to receive timely subsidies despite meeting manufacturing targets.
“The PLI schemes have transformed India’s exports basket from traditional commodities to high value-added products such as electronics and telecommunication goods, processed food products, etc. PLI schemes have witnessed exports surpassing ₹5.31 lakh crore (about $61.76 billion), with significant contributions from sectors such as largescale electronics manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, food processing, and telecom and networking products,” as per the Ministry’s statement.
The Reuters article claimed that as of October 2024, firms had produced $151.93 billion (approximately ₹13 lakh crore) worth of goods under the programme, or 37% of the target set by the Centre, while the incentives issued amounted to just $1.73 billion (₹14,878 crore) or below 8% of the allocated funds.
The government countered this and said that the projects are implemented over a time period ranging from two to three years, depending on the nature of manufacturing and claims are made after first year of production. “Hence, most of the projects are at implementation stage and will be filing incentive claims in due course.”
While the news article reported that investment and production in the steel sector too lagged behind targets and 14 of the 58 projects approved for PLIs had withdrawn, the Ministry of Commerce maintained that these firms withdrew “because of change in business plans of the company and project execution delays.”
It said that about ₹20,000 crore of investments have been made by companies in the PLI scheme for specialty steel out of ₹27,106 crore committed.
Incentives of ₹48 crore had been released to the industry so far. The Ministry of Steel estimates that an incentive of ₹2,000 crore will be disbursed by the end of the scheme tenure. As many as 14 of 58 projects withdrew from the scheme. It added that 35 companies had shown interest in the second round of the PLI scheme for specialty steel. A further commitment of ₹25,200 crore investment has been committed by these companies and the Ministry of Steel is in the process of selection and signing MoUs with these companies. An incentive of ₹3,600 crore is estimated to be disbursed to these projects.
Published – March 22, 2025 08:19 pm IST