The Financial Express : Aug 01, 2020, 03:51 PM
New Delhi: The government’s flagship program to boost mobile phone manufacturing has got a major push as 22 companies including Samsung and Apple-partner Pegatron have signed up to avail the benefits of the PLI scheme. “PLI scheme has been a huge success in terms of the applications received from Global as well as Domestic Mobile Phone manufacturing companies and electronic components manufacturers,” Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister for Electronics & IT, Communications, said on Saturday. The same is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for Atmanirbhar Bharat, he added. Considering the response that the scheme has already received, the government is unlikely to extend the deadline of the scheme.Under the PLI scheme, an incentive of 4% to 6% on incremental sales (over base year) of goods under target segments that are manufactured in India is given to eligible companies. The scheme has a tenure of five years subsequent to the base year (FY20). Other than Samsung and Pegatron, other mobile phone manufacturing companies that have applied under the scheme include Rising Star, Wistron and Foxconn. Indian mobile manufacturing companies viz Lava, Dixon Technologies, Bhagwati (Micromax), Padget Electronics, Sojo Manufacturing Services and Optiemus Electronics have also applied under the scheme. 10 companies have also filed applications under the Specified Electronic Components Segment. This includes AT&S, Ascent Circuits, Visicon, Walsin, Sahasra, and Neolync.It is expected that in the coming five years, PLI scheme will help scale the total production to nearly Rs 11.5 lakh crore. Of this, companies under Mobile Phone segment have proposed a production of over Rs 9 lakh crore and the companies under Mobile Phone (Domestic Companies) segment have pitched for a production of about Rs 2 lakh crore. It is also likely that via this scheme, exports will get a major boost and direct employment generation of nearly 3 lakh in next five years will also take place.