Centre provisionally selects 14 firms under Drone PLI scheme

The Central government has provisionally selected 14 firms under the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for drone and drone components.

On Wednesday, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) released the first provisional list of 14 beneficiaries under the scheme.

Accordingly, these 14 beneficiaries include five drone manufacturers and nine drone component manufacturers.

Earlier, the ministry had invited applications from eligible manufacturers on March 10, 2022 and the last date for submission was March 31, 2022.

"The list of beneficiaries is likely to be expanded further since some more manufacturers are likely to exceed the eligibility criteria for the full financial year 2021-22," the ministry said in a statement.

"The final list of PLI beneficiaries is expected to be released by June 30, 2022 after detailed scrutiny of their financial results and other specified documents."

Notably, the eligibility criteria for the PLI scheme for drones and drone components includes an annual sales turnover of Rs 2 crore for drone companies and Rs 50 lakh for drone components manufacturers; and value addition of over 40 per cent of sales turnover.

The PLI scheme for drones and drone components was notified on September 30, 2021.

Under the scheme, a total incentive of Rs 120 crore is spread over three financial years which is nearly double the combined turnover of all domestic drone manufacturers in FY 2020-21.

The PLI rate is 20 per cent of the value addition which is one of the highest among other PLI schemes.