PLI: Rs 4,415 cr disbursed, system in place to facilitate beneficiaries’ visa applications

The government has disbursed Rs 4,415 crore under Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes for eight sectors, including electronics and pharma, till October this fiscal and a system to facilitate visa applications for PLI beneficiary companies has been put in place, an official said on Wednesday.

“Incentive of around Rs 4,415 crore is disbursed under PLI Schemes for eight sectors including large-scale electronics manufacturing, IT hardware, bulk drugs, telecom, food processing, and drones,” said Rajeev Singh Thakur, additional secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).

Rs 1,515 crore were disbursed in FY24 till October as against Rs 2,900 crore in full

2022-23.

The government in 2021 announced PLI schemes for 14 sectors such as telecommunication, white goods, textiles, manufacturing of medical devices, automobiles, speciality steel, food products, high-efficiency solar PV modules, advanced chemistry cell battery, drones, and pharma with an outlay of Rs 1.97 lakh crore.

As per the DPIIT, 746 applications have been approved in 14 sectors with expected investment of over Rs 3 lakh crore till date. About 176 MSMEs are among the PLI beneficiaries in sectors such pharma, and telecom.

He said over Rs 1.03 lakh crore of investment was reported till November 2023, which has led to production/sales of Rs 8.61 lakh crore and employment generation (direct and indirect) of over 6.78 lakhs. There are about 1,000 units under the scheme.

“The disbursement is not showing the numbers but we are hopeful because investments are on target and in some cases achieved almost the tenure and similarly, production is also on the right path,” he said.

The schemes have witnessed exports surpassing Rs 3.2 lakh crore, with significant contributions from sectors such as electronics, pharma, food processing, and telecom.

On pending Samsung claim, Thakur said: “One of the cases has been cleared” and added that a Standard Operating Procedure is being put in place to reduce the time for processing of the documents.

“It has been told to the PMAs and departments to approve the claim and not to raise unnecessary objections,”
he said as industry had raised concerns over slow disbursal of fiscal incentives under the scheme.

By end of this fiscal, the disbursal target is Rs 11,000 crore. Import substitution of 60% has been achieved in the telecom sector.