Recently, the government shared some crucial data related to the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme of ₹1.97 lakh crore which was implemented in 2021-2022 for five years. As per the report, the scheme has been sluggishly performing as only ₹14020 crore has been disbursed until 2024 for 10 sectors out of the 14 sectors selected under the scheme.
Actual Investments & Sales
Under this PLI scheme, until November 2024, the actual investment was about ₹1.61 lakh crore. While the investment is almost close to the set target, the production and sales levels are also near to the set goals.
Until November 2024, the total production generated by the scheme’s investment stood at ₹14 lakh crore little away from the FY25’s target of ₹15.52 lakh crore. The scheme also generated around 11.5 lakhs of employment as per the data released by the Commerce Department on 22 March 2025.
As of 22 March 2025, there were a total of 764 applications which got approved under this scheme for all 14 sectors. Out of these, 176 MSMEs are there who are from varied sectors which include –
- Medical devices
- Telecom
- Pharmaceuticals
- White goods
- Bulk drugs
- Textiles and drones
- Food processing and others
Sluggish Disbursal and Why?
While the investments are almost at par, along with the production and sales levels, disbursal has been slow, and only ₹14020 crore were disbursed. This was to 10 sectors out of the 14 selected sectors under the scheme and it includes large-scale electronics manufacturing, bulk drugs, IT hardware, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, automobiles, and auto components, white goods, telecom & networking products, food processing, drones and its components and others.
The four sectors, which haven’t got any incentive as of now include –
- Specialty Steel
- Textiles
- High-Efficiency Solar PV Modules
- ACC battery
However, here is the catch, as these projects are usually of at least two to three years, as per the nature of the products and manufacturing timelines, the claims have not been filed year from many of the businesses under the scheme. Once the claims are filed, the disbursal of the incentives will go up under the scheme.
As per Businessline, PMO has said that they are now focusing on the ten sectors and thus holding approvals for the other four. The government wants to improve the performance of these ten sectors before expanding the scheme to other four.
Additional Scheme for Manufacturing
As per reports, another scheme may be floated by the government in the near future for the manufacturing sector to boom. However, it has not been finalized yet. It has been a result of the large-scale electronics 9mobile) manufacturing sector doing better than all the other sectors included in the scheme. Even most of the sectors are yet to pick up growth as well. These sectors which are already on the right track have already exported goods worth ₹5.31 lakh crore which is a huge achievement under this scheme.
Wrapping up
So, it will be interesting to see how the markets unfold, and how the government implements this scheme to its entirety. While there are challenges, there are positive outcomes for the PLI beneficiaries of the scheme as well which has mainly boosted the production and sales in the manufacturing sector and skyrocketed the exports from the booming sectors.
Source: Thehindubusinessline
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