Atmanirbhar push: Rs 7,000-cr PLI boost for toys, bicycle components soon

The government has finalised two new production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes worth over Rs 7,000 crore to give impetus to domestic manufacturing of items, such as toys and bicycle components.
 

As much as Rs 3,489 crore is expected to be allocated towards the PLI scheme for toys and Rs 3,597 crore for bicycle components, people aware of the matter told Business Standard. A Cabinet note regarding the same has already been floated.
 

“Once we get an approval from the Cabinet regarding these two schemes, we plan to finalise the rules and confirm the applications by the end of the next fiscal year,” one of the persons cited above said.
 

The products were identified and recommended by the Steering Committee for Advancing Local Value-Add and Exports comprising top industrialists and officials from commerce and industry ministry and other government departments.
 

After the first set of the schemes received good response, the industry was hoping that the Union Budget in February would announce at least half a dozen new ones. However, not even a single new scheme was mentioned.
 

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal had said the finance ministry regularly keeps allocating money for PLI. “The actual scheme approval is a Cabinet process and guidelines are a ministerial process.
 

We came up with many PLIs and others will also come through the Cabinet. Many PLIs are in the pipeline,” Goyal had told Business Standard in a post-Budget interview.

The finance minister has already provided Rs 1.97 trillion for PLI schemes, along with Rs 76,000 crore for the semiconductors. The official cited above said there would be no additional budgetary allocation for the two new schemes.

Over Rs 7,000 crore will be allocated from the estimated savings from the first set of schemes, which stands at Rs 11,848 crore.

The scheme is structured in a way that the outgo or the incentives to the PLI beneficiaries or companies will be given out in tranches. For instance, of the 14 PLI schemes rolled out by the government so far, the pay out to the beneficiaries will be only Rs 4,000 crore to seven schemes by the end of the current fiscal year.

The government’s outgo towards the scheme will be visible over the next two years when production picks up in full swing, another official said.