50% eligible cos got telecom manufacturing PLI incentives till March 31

Under the telecom production-linked incentive scheme, only 21 out of the 42 eligible manufacturers have been able to get incentives till March 31, 2025, as per data shared by the Department of Telecom.

The Department of Telecom has disbursed Rs 1,162 crore for the telecom product-linked incentive scheme till March 31, this year.

The telecom product-linked incentive scheme came into effect from April 1, 2021 and is scheduled to end this fiscal year.

"Total incentive disbursed under the Scheme till March 31, 2025 is Rs 1,162.03 crore," DoT said in response to information sought under Right to Information.

Only 21 out of the 42 shortlisted companies have received the incentive, while two companies were rejected for failing to achieve the target as per the scheme guidelines.

The claim applications of two beneficiaries -- Coral Telecom Ltd for FY 2021-22 and -- Alphion India Pvt Ltd for FY 2022-23 have been rejected due to non-achievement of eligibility threshold criteria," the DoT said.

One of the beneficiaries on condition of anonymity said that some telecom gear makers were just white labelling imported products which impacted production and margins under the PLI scheme.

"A strict monitoring of the scheme is required to curb such unethical practices that have impacted the intent of the scheme. The government has given open support to telecom operators to improve their liquidity.

"Telecom operators should also align with the government's ambition of self-reliance and job creation by encouraging procurement of products that come with higher local value addition," a senior official of a broadband gear maker said.

The government had earmarked a total incentive of Rs 4,115 crore under the scheme. The scheme was estimated to generate additional sales of Rs 2.45 lakh crore and create additional employment of more than 44,000 over the scheme period.

According to an official statement, beneficiaries under the scheme have made an investment of Rs 4,081 crore, generating total sales of Rs 78,672 crore, which includes export sales worth Rs 14,963 crore till January 2025.

The eligible players have generated employment for 26,351 individuals.

Jabil Circuit was the biggest beneficiary of the scheme. It received Rs 235.87 crore as incentive in two fiscal years 2022-23 and 2023-24.

Flextronics received Rs 165.12 crore in incentive, Nokia Rs 157.32 crore, Reliance Industries backed NeoLync Tele Communications got Rs 142.06 crore, Foxconn's Rising Stars received Rs 80.33 crore and Syrma SGS got Rs 53.23 crore.

The list of beneficiaries that received less than Rs 50 crore incentive include VVDN Technologies (Rs 48.37 crore), Sanmina-SCI (Rs 44.35 crore), Dixon India (34.78 crore) and GX India (Rs 20.91 crore).