Adani arm, LG among 15 more to get white goods PLI benefits
The government has selected 15 companies, including Adani Copper Tubes, LG Electronics, Mitsubishi Electric, Jindal Poly Films Crompton Greaves, and Wipro, in the second round for incentives under the Rs 6,238-crore production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for white goods.
Together, the selected companies have pledged investments of Rs 1,368 crore in making air-conditioner (AC) components and LED bulbs, which will lead to incremental production of Rs 25,583 crore over the next five years. The investments will create direct employment opportunities for 4,000 people.
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The applications of four other investors, including Zeco Aircon and EMM ESS Aircon, with pledged investments of Rs 181 crore are being referred to a committee of experts.
In the first round, 46 applicants — including Daikin, Hitachi, Panasonic, Voltas, Blue Star, Mettube, Dixon and Havells, with committed investment of Rs 5,264 crore — had been selected.
Of the companies chosen in the second round, six have pledged to invest Rs 908 crore in making AC components over five years, while nine applicants, with committed investments of Rs 460 crore, want to manufacture LED bulbs.
Adani Copper alone has proposed to invest Rs 408 crore over in AC parts, followed by LG (Rs 300 crore). The other four successful candidates in this category — Mitsubishi Electric, Starion India, Kaynes Technology India, Swaminatthan Enterprises — have committed to invest Rs 50 crore each.
Similarly, Jindal Poly Films wants to invest Rs 360 crore in making LED lights.
Anil Agrawal, additional secretary in the department for the promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT), said domestic value addition in these segments is expected to grow from the current 15-20% to nearly 80% due to the PLI scheme. The DPIIT is implementing the PLI scheme for white goods.
The government had said in March it would reopen the application window for the PLI scheme for ACs and LED bulbs to benefit more players, acceding to industry requests. The PLI scheme was first notified on April 16, 2021, and its guidelines were published on June 4. Interested investors had time up to September 15 last year to apply for the scheme. In the second round, the application window remained open from March 10 to April 25.
The incentives will flow in from the next fiscal at 6% (if the investments start from FY22) and will be trimmed to 5% by FY25 and then to 4% in FY27.
