Cabinet approves production linked incentive scheme for white goods

The prime objective of the PLI scheme is to make manufacturing in India globally competitive by removing sectoral disabilities, creating economies of scale and ensuring efficiencies. It is designed to create complete component ecosystem in India and make India an integral part of the global supply chains. 

The scheme is expected to attract global investors, generate large scale employment opportunities and enhance exports substantially.

The PLI scheme for white goods, companies engaged in the manufacture of air conditioners and LED lights will be provided an incentive of 4 to 6 per cent on incremental sales of goods manufactured in India for a period of five years.Different incentives have been earmarked for different types of components to specifically target global investments into desired segments. Selection of companies for the scheme shall be done so as to incentivise manufacturing of components or sub-assemblies which are not currently manufactured in India in sufficient quantity. Mere assembly of finished goods shall not be incentivised.

Companies meeting the pre-qualification criteria for different target segments will be eligible to participate in the scheme. Incentives are open to companies making brown field or green field Investments. Thresholds of cumulative incremental investment and incremental sales of manufactured goods over the base year would have to be met for claiming incentives.

An entity availing benefits under any other PLI scheme of Government India will not be eligible under this scheme for the same products but the entity may take benefits under other applicable schemes or schemes of state governments. The scheme will be implemented as a pan India scheme and is not specific to any location, area or segment of population. A number of global and domestic companies, including a number of MSMEs are likely to benefit from the scheme.

The scheme is expected to be instrumental in achieving growth rates that are much higher than existing ones for A-C and LED industries, develop complete component eco-systems in India and create global champions manufacturing in India. They will have to meet the compulsory BIS and BEE quality standards for sales into domestic market and applicable standards for global markets. It will also lead to investments in innovation and research and development and upgradation of technology.

It is estimated that over the period of five years, the PLI scheme will lead to incremental investment of Rs7,920 crore, incremental production worth Rs1,68,000 crore, exports worth Rs64,400 crore, direct and indirect revenues of Rs49,300 crore and the creation of additional four lakh direct and indirect employment opportunities.