Nikhil Bhatia, Co-Founder of Hop Electric, has requested the Ministry of Heavy Industries to make manufacturing standards consistent and expand testing agencies for the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme. The company is seeking a one-year extension from the government and wants the scheme to be eligible from 2022 to 2023. They also propose that the incentive claim period should be extended to three years.

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Bhatia, in an interview with CNBC-TV18, stated, “Currently there are two testing agencies- ARAI and iCAT that are eligible for PLI qualifications. We asked them if they could add NATRAX and GARC in that capacity so that the burden from these two industries is a little lightened. And we as young people do not have to wait in line for much longer.”

He further added, “Incentives are being given to build capacities here in India locally. If companies are not complying to that, and they are penalised for that it’s their fault. It’s nobody else’s fault. What we are requesting them is that we are ready to build up the capacity here in India and sell to the entire globe right. But they need to be more supportive throughout the entire process to at least the young OEMs who are trying to make a new mark in the industry.”

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Bhatia also mentioned, “What we are seeking from ministry is that the start period- determining sales value start period is from 2022. It should be rather from the date of declaration of SOPs from the ministry because before that nothing is eligible. So I think one year buffer from that space and then let’s say everything falls in place, we start putting up capital now, materialising all of that capital and then churning out sales to gain incentive will take me another year and a half more that means a three years long threshold. So if the scheme ends in 2026-2027, the incentive period should also be extended by three years. So that at least the entire capitalisation of plant machinery, we should be able to process the output and claim incentives from that.”

Auto Expert Arun Malhotra, during the same interview, stated that he believes that there was a learning process involved for companies, industry and the government in ascertaining direct value addition which led to a delay in SOPs. He suggested more collaboration between government and industry at early stages.

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Malhotra said, “The number of companies who have already qualified is large enough. You talked of 85 companies. So by that logic, there is not much scope of opening it up because you’re not able to do justice to these 85 either. Only five have got clearance and only two have applied for the encashment. However Tesla is a special case. So it’s a dynamic world ecosystem, if you see certain opportunities and you see that you want to make India global manufacturing hub, which the government is very serious about, we will have an open mind, but whatever policies you make for foreign players same has to be applicable for the domestic players as well.”

Malhotra also suggested considering expanding the budgeted amount of incentives as the current budgeted amount may not be sufficient.

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(Edited by : Vivek Dubey)