According to the India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA), the smartphone production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme has generated 19 times the value of its incentive disbursements under the scheme between the financial year 2020-21 (FY21) and FY24.
In the assessment of the PLI scheme, ICEA noted that the industry contributed Rs 1.10 trillion to the government exchequer and produced goods worth Rs 12.55 trillion between FY21 and FY24, during which the government disbursed Rs 58 billion in incentives. This implies that the government earned revenue of Rs 1,042 billion after the PLI disbursements.
The report noted that the industry paid duty of Rs 480 billion on mobile parts and components during the given period while another Rs 620 billion was generated from incremental goods and services tax (GST).
The report further added that the mobile phone industry has generated nearly 300,000 direct jobs and 600,000 indirect jobs in the smartphone ecosystem following the launch of the scheme. The industry has also become the largest employment generator and skilling source for women in mid-skilled, blue-collared jobs.
Further, cumulative exports of smartphones during the PLI period of four years added up to Rs 2,870 billion. This has propelled smartphone exports from its 23rd rank in FY19 to becoming the third-largest individual commodity at the end of the last fiscal. It added that smartphones are also India’s largest exported product to the US.
ICEA has also informed the government that value addition for smartphones in India has risen from an average of 12 per cent five years ago to nearly 20 per cent now. The increase in value addition in India is faster than China or Vietnam when they were at India’s stage of expansion in electronics manufacturing.
