NEW DELHI: The Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for white goods is meant to encourage the industry to take the first few steps to compete in the global market and give it the initial push to bring scale to the businesses, said Minister for Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Public Distribution and Textiles Piyush Goyal.
Speaking at the DPIIT-FICCI Investor Roundtable, he said the LED revolution, in fact, was brought about by removing the subsidy and in the long-run, no country has succeeded in becoming a prosperous nation on the back of government support. “In the LED programme in 2015, my first decision on file was to remove the subsidy on the bulb given by EESL,” said Goyal.
“Because the budget was only 9 crore so everybody kept waiting for the subsidy and we could not go beyond six-hundred thousand bulbs in a year. After removal of the subsidy, we could encourage industry to start expanding the sale of the LED bulbs,” the minister said. Goyal also added that 61 companies had set up components manufacturing plants pan India at 111 locations across 14 states/UT and were generating employment.