DPIIT to meet over 1,200 stakeholders on Sat, may discuss fresh PLI targets

Top officials from the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) will meet more than 1,200 stakeholders on Saturday to ensure ‘successful implementation’ of the government’s production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme and may set new targets for achievements under all the 14 schemes going forward. 

“The objective is to bring all stakeholders on a common platform, fostering a sense of ownership to facilitate exchange of knowledge and experiences, good practices and success stories ultimately contributing to the successful implementation of all the 14 PLI Schemes,” DPIIT said in a statement on Friday.

The first-of-its-kind meeting will see participation of all 10 ministries/ departments, project management agencies, and industry meetings. The discussion also aims to set a higher standard of achievements.

All the ministers implementing the PLI scheme are likely to participate to share insights, which is expected not only to boost the confidence of all the stakeholders but also help in building a robust manufacturing ecosystem in India, it said.

The incentive outgo under the PLI scheme during the current financial year is likely to fall behind the government’s estimate of over Rs 11,000 crore, Business Standard had reported last month. 

This is because of multiple reasons, including  companies not being able to claim incentives as they were unable to fulfil the goverment obligations, insufficient applications and slower-than-expected progress in some of the 14 PLI schemes. 

While the PLI scheme for textiles and steel has not been able to show major progress, in some cases, the gestation period is expected to end this year, after which incentives can be claimed starting FY25. There have also been cases of a limited number of applicants in some of PLI schemes rolled out by the government.

In FY23, the disbursement stood at Rs 2,874 crore, or only 1.3 per cent of the Rs 1.97 trillion scheme, which was launched in FY21 across 14 sectors.

The government has recognised that the progress was slow in the case of some sectors–steel, textile, battery, solar PV and automobile, where incentive disbursements are yet to begin. Schemes that are doing relatively well include mobile manufacturing, pharmaceutical drugs, bulk drugs, medical devices telecom, food products and drones.

PLI schemes--that aims to make India a manufacturing powerhouse--have seen investments over Rs 1 lakh crore and production/sales of over Rs 8.7 lakh crore, along with a substantial number of direct and indirect employment generation. The exports have been boosted by over Rs 3.4 lakh crore.