In pursuance of the Prime Minister’s call for ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ to bring manufacturing at the center-stage and emphasise its significance in driving India’s growth and creating jobs, the government has approved the introduction of the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for 13 key sectors with a total outlay of Rs. 1,97,291 crore.
The Department for Promotion of Industry & Internal Trade (DPIIT) is coordinating the implementation of all PLI Schemes. DPIIT is also the nodal department for the PLI Scheme for White Goods – Air Conditioners and LED lights sector – with an outlay of Rs. 6,238 crore.
The proposal of DPIIT for the PLI scheme for White Goods for manufacture of components and sub-assemblies of ACs and LED Lights had been approved by the Union Cabinet in April. The scheme is to be implemented over a seven year period, from 2021-22 to 2028-29, and has an outlay of Rs. 6,238 crore. Some modifications to the scheme guidelines were issued in August. Applicants were given flexibility to choose the gestation period either up to March 2022 or up to March 2023.
Applications for the Scheme were invited from 15 June to 15 September. A total of 52 companies filed their application with committed investment of Rs. 5,858 crore under the PLI scheme.
After evaluation of all the applications, 42 applicants with committed investment of Rs 4,614 crore have been provisionally selected as beneficiaries under the PLI scheme. The selected applicants include26 for Air Conditioner manufacturing with a committed investment of Rs. 3,898 crore and 16 for LED Lights manufacturing with a committed investment of Rs. 716 crore.
Six applicants proposing FDI from countries sharing land border with India have been advised to submit for consideration of approval under the PLI Scheme.