No closing dates for PLI scheme, govt makes it easier to avail benefits

The Union government's 76,000-crore incentive scheme earmarked for the industry to develop semiconductors and display manufacturing ecosystem in the country will not have a closing date, a report published in Financial Express (FE) said. This marks a change in the government's policy towards the semiconductor industry.

Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar told FE that companies that want to apply for the scheme can do so at any point in time. This is being done to attract more players into setting up semiconductor fabrication units and avoid a situation where only a few firms dominate the scene.

To ensure this, the minister said that the government wanted to increase competition which would empower innovation. He added that the government was not concerned about the name of the company applying for the scheme. They would only have to meet capital and technology requirements and were welcome to apply, the report quoted the minister as saying.

At the time of its launch in December 2021, companies had 45 days to apply for the scheme.

PLI scheme beyond smartphones

Vedanta-Foxconn JV, IGSS Ventures and ISMC are moving to set up chip manufacturing facilities under the scheme. To this end, they are investing $13.6 billion. They have also sought $5.6 billion from the government. However, the request for financial support has not been approved so far, the report added.

Apart from the semiconductor Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, the government is also planning incentive schemes for computers and devices, telecom, automotive, and IT hardware, FE quoted the minister.

The PLI Scheme

Government launched the PLI scheme for IT hardware to promote local manufacturing of products such as laptops, tablets, and desktops, among others. The companies involved in the manufacture of these products had expressed their apprehensions about lower incentives for them to start manufacturing.

To make it easier for the companies, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) has prepared a fresh draft of the PLI scheme to attract major global manufacturers like Dell and HP. The report quoted Chandrasekhar as saying that the government wants to make other PLI schemes just as successful as it has been for smartphone manufacturing.