The Cabinet today approved a ₹12,195-crore Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for telecom equipment manufacturing, to promote Made-in-India gear and networking products.

The financial incentive is also to boost export of telecom and networking products, a government release said.

“The government is positioning India as a global powerhouse for manufacturing, and has created a conducive environment for ease of doing business. It will be implemented from April 1... Majority of the international players are keen to come to India and some of them already have their footprints in India. We are going to give them encouragement,” Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister for Communications and IT, said while briefing the media after the Cabinet meeting.

It is expected that the scheme will bring investments of more than ₹3,000 crore and generate direct and indirect employment in good numbers.

“In the coming five years we hope to have incremental production of ₹2,44,200 crore, exports worth ₹1,95,360 crore, direct and indirect employment to 40,000 people and tax revenues of around ₹17,000 crore,” Prasad said.

Through this policy, India will move towards self-reliance. By incentivising large-scale manufacturing in India, domestic value-addition will increase gradually. Provision of higher incentive to MSMEs will encourage domestic telecom manufacturers to become part of the global supply chain, Prasad said.

The support under the PLI scheme will be provided to companies manufacturers of specified telecom and networking products in India like Gigabit Passive Optical Networks (GPON), base routers, Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM), Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS/ IPMPLS) and 5G/4G radios.

Eligibility will be further subject to achievement of a minimum threshold of cumulative incremental investment over  four years and incremental sales of manufactured goods net of taxes (as distinct from traded goods) over the base year 2019-2020, a government  statement said.

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