The outlay for the government’s new Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for the steel sector is approximately Rs 4,300 crore. The revised scheme aims to boost the manufacturing of specialty steel and electrical steel. Speciality steel is a high-grade product used in sectors like defence, automobile, and electrical, among others.
This second iteration of the scheme has been introduced after extensive consultations with industry stakeholders. Officials have taken into account key concerns raised by the sector to attract more companies and investments. The first PLI scheme for the steel industry, with a larger outlay of ₹6,322 crore, attracted investments worth Rs 18,300 crore against a committed investment of Rs 27,106 crore.
The government earlier announced that it would launch another round of the PLI scheme for the steel sector on Monday, January 6. “Union Minister of Steel and Heavy Industries…will launch ’PLI scheme 1.1’ for the steel industry and call for applications…on January 6,” the steel ministry said in a statement.
The idea of Production-Linked Incentives (PLI) was conceived during the Covid-induced global lockdowns of 2020. Initially launched for three sectors, the PLI scheme was later extended to include steel in November 2020. Speciality steel is still one area where more is needed to be done. The government brought a PLI to incentivise the manufacturing of speciality steel but the offtake of the sops was not as expected, the government had earlier said.
