The government has approved Rs 357.17 crore for Apple's vendor Foxconn India and Rs 58.29 crore for Dixon Technologies subsidiary Padget Electronics under the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for mobile phones. This is the first time the government has cleared an incentive for a global company engaged in electronics manufacturing in the country.

"Foxconn Hon Hai Technology India Mega Development Pvt. Ltd is the first global company that has been approved under the target segment 'Mobile Phones' (in the category of the invoice value of Rs 15,000 and above) to receive incentive under mobile manufacturing for the period 1 August 2021–31 March 2022 based on its incremental investments and sales figures.

"The incentive amount approved is Rs 357.17 crore," Niti Ayog said in a statement on Tuesday, December 20.

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In a conversation with CNBC-TV18’s Parikshit Luthra, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Secretary Anurag Jain said the incentives will be disbursed before March for other sectors like pharma, drones, food processing, electronics, etc. He also added that the government is coming up with quality control orders to improve the quality of Indian exports — “Addressing the manufacturing system holistically, by ensuring not just financial incentives but the quality of the product as well,” he said.

According to Jain, the PLI scheme for mobile phones has been the most successful and the export growth in the sector has doubled. As of September 2022, the PLI scheme for large-scale electronics manufacturing (LSEM) attracted investments of Rs 4,784 crore and led to a total production of Rs 2,03,952 crore, including exports of Rs 80,769 crore.

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The production of mobile phones has risen from about six crore in 2014-15 to around 31 crore in 2021-22. India exported Rs 45,000 crore worth of mobile phones in FY 2021-22.

"Padget Electronics Pvt Ltd, a domestic company, has been approved by the Empowered Committee to receive an incentive under mobile manufacturing for the quarter of January-March 2022 based on its incremental investments and sales figures under the target segment 'Mobile Phones'. The incentive amount approved is Rs 58.29 crore," the statement said.

The company has already received an amount of Rs 53.28 crore under the PLI scheme for large-scale electronics manufacturing for the period August-December 2021 based on its incremental investments and sales figures.

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The proposals for disbursement of incentives, presented by the Ministry of Electronics and IT, were considered by the empowered committee, comprising NITI Aayog CEO Param Iyer, DPIIT Secretary Anurag Jain, MeitY Secretary Alkesh Kumar Sharma, and others.

(With PTI inputs)

(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)