Budget Manufacturing push: PLI boost for shoes, toys, electronics

The government has given a fillip to manufacturing and introduced production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes for the toys, and footwear and leather sectors and upped the budget allocated for electronics, automobiles, pharmaceuticals, white goods, drones and advanced chemistry cell and battery storage.

The commerce and industry ministry has recommended an outlay of Rs 3,489 crore for the PLI scheme for toys and Rs 2,600 crore for the footwear and leather sector.

“The scheme is not yet approved by the cabinet. Hence, the token provision has only been made for 2024-25,” the finance ministry said in the expenditure budget.


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The PLI scheme electronics got a 33% rise in budget outlay to Rs 6,200 crore while automobiles and auto components got a seven-fold push to Rs 3,500 crore and the budget for advanced chemistry cell and battery storage has been hiked from Rs 250 crore in 2024-25 from Rs 12 crore.

The government also said it will orient the regulatory environment for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) to facilitate their growth.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that is an “important policy priority” for the government to ensure timely and adequate finances, relevant technologies and appropriate training for the MSMEs to grow and compete globally.

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Anil Bhardwaj, secretary general, Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises, said that access to finance and technology will be the enabling regulatory environment.

“In case of finance, the current financial architecture needs a revamp to serve green field manufacturing projects and fast growing MSMEs,” he said, adding that to reduce cost of litigation, the government is likely to promote arbitration and mediation for MSMEs.