22 mobile companies apply for India’s new incentive scheme: Government
NEW DELHI: At least 22 companies have applied for the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s (MeitY) production- linked incentive (PLI) scheme that seeks to boost domestic electronics manufacturing and make India a manufacturing and export hub for mobile phones. Addressing a press conference on Saturday, the minister of electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad urged Apple and Samsung to expand their presence in India, benefiting from the Rs 41,000 crore incentive scheme.
Together, they have proposed to produce mobile devices and components worth over Rs 11 lakh crore in the next five years, he added. Global mobile manufacturing companies that have applied under t h e i n c e n t ive scheme are Samsung, Rising Star and three Apple contract manufacturers- Foxconn Hon Hai, Wistron and Pegatron. There has been significant interest expressed by local manufacturers as well, with applications being filed by Lava, Dixon, Micromax, Sojo, Optimus and Padget Electronics. While Foxconn also makes mobile phones for market leader Xiaomi and HMD, the maker of the current crop of Nokia phones, none of the other Chinese companies such as Oppo, Vivo, Realme and OnePlus have applied for these benefits.
“Over the next five years, the scheme is expected to lead to production of mobiles and components worth Rs 11.5 lakh crore. Of these, over Rs 7 lakh crore worth of products will be exported. The scheme is also expected to generate three lakh direct jobs and over nine lakh indirect jobs in the country,” Prasad told reporters. Over 40 applications were also received for the Electronics Manufacturing Clusters (EMC) scheme aimed at boosting manufacturing of electronics components. These include Austria-based AT&S and China-based Avary, USbased Visicon, Taiwanese Walsin. Among Indian firms who have applied are Ascent Circuits, Sahasra and SFO Technologies.
Apple-maker Pegatron and Samsung have committed a cumulative investment worth Rs 11,000 crore, while Lava plans to invest around Rs 800 crore over the next five years, said sources. Under the scheme, cash incentives of 4-6 per cent will be extended for five years on incremental sales of goods manufactured in India with 2019-2020 as the base year. Companies that make mobile phones which sell for Rs 15,000 or more will get an incentive of up to 6 per cent on incremental sales of all such mobile phones made in India. In the same category, companies which are owned by Indian nationals and make such mobile phones, the incentive has been kept at Rs 200 crore for the next four years.
For the first year, the total incentive to be given has been capped at Rs 5,334 crore, while for the second and third year it has been kept at Rs 8,064 and Rs 8425 crore, respectively. In the fourth year, the incentive will be hiked substantially to Rs 11,488 crore, while in the fifth and final year, the incentive to be distributed has been capped at Rs 7,640 crore.