Govt To Roll Out Rs 6,200 Crore PLI Scheme To Boost Local Manufacturing Of ACs, LED Lights From April This Year

The government is set to roll out the Rs 6,238 crore production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for the air conditioners and LED lights on 1 April, reports Livemint.

According to the report, the PLI scheme will be formally launched by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry after the Ministry of Finance approves its proposal.

Earlier in March last year, the government had announced PLI schemes worth Rs 51,355 crore for three sectors - mobile phone manufacturing and specified electronics components, drug intermediates and active pharmaceutical ingredients, and medical devices - to boost local manufacturing.

Later in November 2020, the government added 10 more sectors to the list with additional committed incentive of Rs 1.46 lakh crore.

“We are quite hopeful that before end of this financial year (on 31 March), all PLI schemes would have received cabinet approval and would be notified. We have done extensive stakeholder consultations with air-conditioner and LED players," Guruprasad Mohapatra, secretary, department for promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT) was quoted as saying.

The DPIIT secretary said the PLI scheme will be a gamechanger in the country, with focus not only on manufacturing locally but for the world.

“So, India can manufacture products of certain quality and scale, which will make it a global champion. We are actively monitoring about 1,000 companies globally, which are either already in India and trying to expand or are thinking of entering. We will handhold them through the investment promotion division of this ministry, Invest India and project development cells of ministries," he said.

The scheme is expected to lead to incremental production worth Rs 1.7 lakh crore over the period of five years. It will also lead to exports worth Rs 64,400 crore and 1 lakh job opportunities.

The PLI scheme will reportedly be launched on 1 April and will remain open for applications for six months. However, the deadline for filing applications may be extended if required.