In a representation sent to the Secretary of the Ministry of Food Processing, a group of major marine products exporters have termed the ministry’s production-linked incentive scheme (PLISFPI) for the food processing industry as grossly inequitable and the threshold limits as arbitrary.
The eligibility threshold under the marine segment is ₹600 crore sales across all food products (2019-20) and a minimum investment of ₹75 crore.
The exporters want the scheme opened up to applicants based on their turnover in the marine segment alone, based on the sales data maintained by the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), and preference for players who have a presence in the international marketplace and are engaged in value-added products.
The memorandum urged the government to insist on fresh investment only in marine products manufacturing. Under the present scheme, even the construction of a general-purpose cold store by a large player would become eligible, while “enterprises like ours which are in the process of investing amounts in excess of ₹75 crore (the minimum investment required under the scheme) are left out just because of the ₹600-crore threshold limit”, the letter said.
MPEDA calls for value addition in fish exports to double producers’ income
“All of us have been in marine export for several decades and have had consistent performance in highly competitive export markets and our brands are well known and well received. We are now in the process of expanding our processing capabilities through fresh investment as our customers in the USA want to shift their reliance on China for sourcing high value-added marine products from India. This is the time when assistance under PLISFPI would benefit us, as well as the country,” the letter said.
“Though we made attempts to apply under PLISFPI, we could not gain access as our marine segment turnover was below the threshold limit of ₹600 crore. However, we satisfy the other two eligible criteria viz., capital investment and incremental turnover. In all our cases, the turnover computed in the manner as envisaged under the scheme falls marginally short of the ₹600-crore threshold but what is significant is that in all our cases, our entire turnover is from marine products and not from unrelated activities.”