NEW DELHI: The government is looking to release around Rs 4,000 crore to the beneficiaries of the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, with a majority of companies from telecom, pharma and food processing industries.
Earlier this week, the Centre approved the release of over Rs 357 crore to Foxconn Hon Hai Technology India Mega Development, the first global company under the target segment of mobile phones to receive incentive. Earlier, Padget Electronics, a subsidiary of Dixon Technologies, was the only other company to get the benefit. Foxconn is producing mobile phones for Apple, while Padget is a manufacturer of phones sold by Motorola and Samsung.
Official sources told TOI that the government departments and ministries have been asked to streamline processes so that funds can be released at the earliest. At the same time, a strong message has also gone to the private sector as some of the companies had not provided accurate information to claim the incentive. Besides, departments dealing with the 14 sectors have also been asked to ensure that baseline numbers – for investment and sales, the two criteria for making the payments – are streamlined so that proposals are not stuck. In the past, this has been an area of concern.
The moves follow a recent review by the PMO, where government departments have been told to undertake proper hand-holding of companies in the sectors concerned so that the scheme, which envisages incentive payout of close to Rs 2 lakh crore over five years, produces the desired results.
