Government retains PLI targets, timelines

The government has kept manufacturing targets and timelines of the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme unchanged, despite a nearly two-and-a-half-month delay in launching the plan. Some Indian handset makers who had called for a rethink on the targets due to the delay said the task of meeting the targets was challenging, given that they need time to raise capital, order and import machinery and speed up construction.

As per the final letters sent out this week to approved applicants, including two units of Foxconn, Wistron, Pegatron, Samsung, Lava, Micromax, Karbonn, Dixon and Optiemus, the local companies are stipulated to achieve incremental sales of Rs 500 crore between August 2020 and March 2021 over the total production of each company between August 2019 and March 2020, to avail 6% incentive in the first year.