By Shivangi Acharya
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – A key Indian government scheme designed to spur local production has drawn investments totaling 535 billion rupees ($6.54 billion) till December 2022, a trade ministry statement said on Wednesday.
Investments under the production-linked incentive, or PLI scheme, are expected to rise further to 2.74 trillion rupees as the scheme runs its course, as per the statement.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship program was first introduced in late 2020.
With over 1.97 trillion rupees earmarked for incentives under the initiative, the program is designed to boost manufacturing by offering companies across 14 industries payouts based on a percentage of revenue generated, for up to five years.
While New Delhi pays local manufacturers when sales targets are met, the scheme helps draw investments and create new jobs.
Annual capital expenditure from the PLI scheme is expected to cross one trillion rupees in 2023/24 and may peak out at 1.7 trillion rupees in 2025/26, based on calculations by credit rating agency ICRA.
Disbursement of incentives under the scheme are also expected to pick up pace in the next 2-3 years as the Asian nation emerges from covid shocks and geopolitical uncertainties, Rajiv Singh Thakur, additional secretary at a division of the trade ministry told reporters in a press conference.
($1 = 81.7750 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Shivangi Acharya; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
