Samsung will receive a portion of its subsidies under the Centre’s production-linked incentive scheme for mobile phone manufacturing for FY21, before the end of FY23. Sources close to the matter told businessline that, after a delay of more than a year, the Korean electronics company will receive a portion of the ₹900 crore incentive soon.
Held back for 2 years
The Centre held the disbursement of incentive under the PLI scheme to Samsung Electronics for FY21, after discrepancies were found in the invoices. Sources indicate that the Ministry of Electronics has garnered sufficient clarity and will be releasing the incentive soon.
Only qualifier
The Korean tech giant was the only firm to qualify for the PLI incentive in FY21 after the Covid-induced supply chain issues prevented other beneficiaries from qualifying. For FY21, the threshold for qualifying was incremental sales of ₹4,000 crore and a maximum of ₹15,000 crore. Samsung had submitted that it was eligible for the maximum incentive, submitting a revenue of sales of Rs 15,000 crore. The Centre however pegged this amount to be much lower, citing that the handset maker had included phones below the $200 threshold into the total revenue on which the subsidy is computed. This prompted the Centre to hold back Samsung’s FY21 PLI incentives till now.
Sources note that MeitY will be clearing only a portion of the incentive amount of ₹900 crore for now.
In September, the Centre approved 32 beneficiaries that qualified for subsidies under the mobile PLI scheme for FY22. MeitY has started clearing payments for beneficiaries for FY22. Mobile manufacturers Padget Electronics and Dixon have already received payments. iPhone manufacturers Hon Hai Foxconn and Wistron are in the process of filing papers and auditing is underway.
Over a period of five years the total outlay of incentives under the mobile PLI will be ₹40,951 crore.