Cabinet secretary reviews progress of PLI scheme in certain sectors; another meeting likely soon

New Delhi, Aug 3 (PTI) Cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba on Thursday reviewed the progress of the production-linked incentive scheme (PLI) for sectors that are “generally doing very well” like pharma and electronics, a senior official said.

Another such review is expected for the remaining sectors, the official said.

The scheme was announced in 2021 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.

“Today we covered sectors that are generally doing very well like pharma, electronics and mobile manufacturing, and white goods. Others which have not fully taken off are coming up later,” the official said.

“They are doing well but they can do better. We are in the process of consulting whether any minor tweaking is required. Once we complete the process, we will be in a position,” the official added when asked about the details of the review meeting.

PLI schemes for sectors which are not picking up well include high-efficiency solar PV modules, advanced chemistry cell (ACC) batteries, textile products and speciality steel.

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) held a workshop with concerned PLI stake-holders in June to get feedback.

“Some of those suggestions after taking the feedback we will convert into policy decisions,” the official said.

Stakeholders have flagged issues like timely processing of claims; visa-related matters where vendors require some expertise from Chinese professionals; delay in getting environmental clarences in some states.

“Those kinds of things we are trying to sort out. These issues are there in almost all the PLI sectors,” the official said, adding “there are issues of environmental clearances, in same cases visa issues for Chinese, particularly when their components are getting manufactured here”.

The meeting assumed significance as the government disbursed only Rs 2,900 crore till March 2023 out of Rs 3,400 crore claims received under the scheme.

On this, the official said that low disbursements are not an issue, as the scheme is ensuring investments, employment generation, exports and healthy tax collections.

“Disbursement is not a criteria in the general sense to assess whether the scheme is doing good or not. Disbursements doesn’t really bother us so much because many of the schemes we are talking about are in the gestation stage,” the official said.

Concerned ministries are taking up issues related to their sectors and the DPIIT is playing a coordinating role.

“If it doesn’t get resolved it can escalate to Cabinet Secretary to the DPIIT or minister level,” the official added.

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

These schemes for all 14 sectors have been notified by the concerned ministries/ departments after due approval. These schemes are in various stages of implementation.

Out of the 733 applications selected under various PLI schemes, 176 MSMEs are among the PLI beneficiaries in sectors such as bulk drugs, medical devices, pharma, telecom, white goods, food processing, textiles and drones.