India’s Ministry of Steel is reworking the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for specialty steel aimed at broadening its scope and easier eligibility criteria, government sources said on Thursday, December 26.
Under the PLI scheme for specialty steel, companies are offered fiscal incentives linked to creating new capacities.
According to the sources several rounds of discussions have been completed with steel sector stakeholders seeking their views and the reworked PLI scheme for specialty steel could be ready for announcement ‘over the next few weeks’.
Though exact details were not divulged, sources indicated greenfield investments could also be considered for eligibility under PLI scheme. Currently, only brownfield projects or expansion of existing capacities were eligible under the scheme.
Furthermore, incorporation of some green steelmaking process if incorporated by existing steel mills could also be made eligible under PLI, the sources said.
Expansion of existing product portfolio with value added products could also form part of the new scheme, the sources added.
The PLI scheme was unveiled in 2021 with the government creating a corpus of $765 million to be disbursed in phases to steel companies that created new capacities as per eligibility norms.
The first of the disbursals is expected to start from 2025, and government expected to pay out $6 million during the year.
According to the sources, disbursals were low compared to the total corpus available largely because companies registered under PLI scheme were faced with delays in completing the project approved for receiving the fiscal incentives.