Govt disburses Rs 4,415 crore under eight PLI schemes so far

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, an official said on Wednesday.

A total of Rs 1,515 crore was disbursed in FY24 till October, while it was Rs 2,900 crore in 2022-23, when payments under the scheme commenced.

"Incentive amount of around Rs 4,415 crore disbursed under PLI Schemes for eight sectors including large-scale electronics manufacturing, IT hardware, bulk drugs, medical devices, pharma, telecom, food processing, and drones," Additional Secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Rajeev Singh Thakur told reporters here.

When asked about the pending Samsung claim, he said, "One of the cases has been cleared." 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.

Thakur said the departments implementing their respective schemes are responsible for the disbursals. They, along with Project Monitoring Agencies (PMAs), scrutinise the claim applications and sometimes visit the plants, too.

He added that it has been observed that in some cases more time gets "wasted" on back-and-forth communication between PMAs and companies, "so it has been directed to ministries and PMAs to create an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) and reduce the time for processing" of the documents.

The remarks assume significance as certain quarters have raised concerns over slow disbursal of fiscal incentives under the scheme. "It has been told to the PMAs and departments to approve the claim and not to raise unnecessary objections," he added.

As on date, 746 applications have been approved in 14 sectors with expected investment of over Rs 3 lakh crore. 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.

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

"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," Thakur said.

By end of this fiscal, the disbursal target is Rs 11,000 crore. Departments are stating that they are going to achieve this target or are likely to get close to it, he said.

The schemes aim to attract investments in key sectors and cutting-edge technology; ensure efficiency, bring economies of size and scale in the manufacturing sector and make Indian companies and manufacturers globally competitive.

Further he said the DPIIT has set up system to facilitate visa applications for PLI beneficiary companies. He added that foreign direct investment has increased significantly since the inception of the PLI scheme for the electronics segment. Import substitution of 60 per cent has been achieved in the telecom sector, he added.

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