New Delhi

The Government is considering expansion of the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for textiles, which has a corpus of ₹10,683 crore, to include more items of manmade fibre (MMF) garments & fabrics to make it easier for investors to meet the turnover and investment norms, sources have said.

The gestation period for setting up operations, currently fixed at two years, may also be shifted by one year to give investors three years time to start operations.

“The recommendations for making the PLI scheme for textiles more liberal with the  inclusion of at least 30 additional items by expanding the HSN code coverage and a one-year extension of gestation period have been made by the Textile Ministry and are part of the PLI recommendations compiled by DPIIT for consideration of the Cabinet,” the source added.

Stakeholder consultation

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), which is the nodal Department for the ₹1.97 lakh crore PLI scheme covering 14 sectors, recently held a stakeholder consultation with the industry and government departments to discuss how the scheme could be made to deliver results better and faster.

“The DPIIT has put together all reasonable recommendations put forward by line Ministries and Departments on PLI scheme for all 14 sectors and would seek Cabinet’s approval on everyone’s behalf,” the source said.

The Textile Ministry has recommended that some MMF items that have been left out of the scheme due to some classification issues, such as T-shirts and some products of both men’s and women’s wear, should be included. “The items that were left out because of HSN classification issues are more than 30. Hopefully these would be included,” the source added.

Investor concerns

Also important is the demand that an additional year of gestation period be given to investors. “The industry has been demanding that because of geo-political problems, the gestation period should be shifted by one year and the end period for the scheme should be 2030-31 instead of 2029-30. The years for making claims would, however, stay unchanged at 5 years,” the source pointed out.  

The PLI scheme for textiles, implemented in September 2021, covered MMF (manmade fibre) apparels, MMF fabric and technical textiles items. The minimum investment criteria was ₹100 crore and ₹300 crore, for the two parts of the scheme, while minimum turnover criteria were ₹200 crore and ₹400 crore. 

As the Ministry was able to select just 64 candidates the first time round and was left with an anticipated surplus outlay of over ₹4,300 crore, the window for applications was opened again last year but the terms of the scheme remained the same.

The PLI scheme covering sectors such as large-scale electronics manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, telecom, food processing, white goods, solar PV modules, ACC batteries, textiles, drones and speciality steel was launched to create national manufacturing champions, generate 60 lakh new jobs, and incremental revenue of ₹30 lakh crore over 5 years.