‘Disbursement under PLI scheme to hit Rs 13,000 cr this year’

NEW DELHI: The government is expected to disburse about Rs 13,000 crore to eligible firms seeking benefits under the production linked incentive (PLI) schemes, even though an exercise is going on to tweak the scheme for those sectors which have not yet picked up well, a top official said on Friday.

Secretary in the Department for promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Rajesh Kumar Singh said from the current year onwards, the disbursal number will be significantly larger.

The disbursals “I think will go to about Rs 13,000 crore this year”, he told reporters here.

The government disbursed only Rs 2,900 crore till March 2023 out of Rs 3,400 crore claims received under the scheme so far.

The scheme was announced in 2021 for 14 sectors such as telecommunications, white goods, textiles, manufacturing of medical devices, automobiles, speciality steel, food products, high-efficiency solar PV modules, advanced chemistry cell battery, drones and pharma with an outlay of Rs 1.97 lakh crore.

Asked about when the full fund would be disbursed, Singh said: “It is difficult to say as so many factors come into play. But we expect that during the tenure of the scheme, a good part (of that) will get exhausted.”

Savings from the scheme, he said, are already being considered for other PLI schemes or for restructured PLI schemes.

On the restructured PLI schemes, the secretary said those are under various stages of inter-ministerial consultation. “There are some course-corrections or tweaking that are required. Some are minor, some are major and that will require higher level approvals,” he said. PLI schemes for sectors which are not picking up well include high-efficiency solar PV modules, advanced chemistry cell (ACC) batteries, textile products and speciality steel.