The government has opened the application window for the fourth time for companies willing to apply for the white goods production linked incentive (PLI) scheme. The companies will have 30 days from September 15 to October 14 to send in their proposals to qualify for incentives for manufacturing components of LEDs and air conditioners.
The scheme — notified in April 2021 — offers incentives of 4-6% of incremental sales. It will run from 2021-22 to 2028-29 and cover both low value and high value components of air conditioners and LED lights. The outlay for the scheme is Rs 6238 crore of which around Rs 287 crore has already been disbursed.
Those applying in the fourth round would be eligible for incentives for the remaining tenure of the scheme.
Boosting investment and industry confidence
“The application window is being reopened based on the appetite of the industry to invest more under the scheme, which is an outcome of the growing market and confidence generated due to manufacturing of key components of ACs and LED lights in India under the PLI-White Goods Scheme,” a statement by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) said.
“Both new applicants as well as existing beneficiaries of PLI white goods who propose to invest more by way of switching over to higher target segments or their group companies applying under different target segments would be eligible to apply,” the DPIIT statement added.
The first round of applications were invited in 2021 and second round in 2022. The third round was completed in January 2025.
So far, 83 applicants with committed investments of Rs 10,406 crore have been selected as beneficiaries under the PLI scheme. These include some of the biggest names in the industry like Voltas, Blue Star, Hindalco, Uno Minda, Daikin, Hitachi, Panasonic and LG.
Driving growth across sectors
The PLI scheme that was first launched in Mar 2020 now covers 14 sectors and has an outlay of Rs 1.97 lakh crore. Cumulative incentive amount of Rs 21,534 crore have been disbursed till June-end under PLI scheme for 12 sectors.
Sectors which have started getting incentives include electronics , IT hardware, bulk drugs, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, telecom and networking products etc.
Actual investment of Rs 1.76 lakh crore have been realised till March 2025 across 14 sectors, which has resulted in incremental production and sales of over Rs 16.5 lakh crore and employment generation of over 1.2 million (direct and indirect).