Centre receives 23 semiconductor applications for PLI scheme

The government has received 23 applications for the Rs 76,000 crore production-linked incentive scheme announced for semiconductors. The scheme was announced in December 2021 amid chip shortage.

Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the companies looking to manufacture 28 nanometer (nm) or lower nodes of chips would be eligible for getting up to a 50 percent of the project cost under the scheme.

Similarly, companies setting up fabs to manufacture above 28 nm- 45nm node chipsets and above 45 nm–65 nm chips will be able to reimburse 40 percent and 30 percent of the project cost respectively.

The minister also said that the semiconductor consumption in India was worth around Rs 1.1 lakh crore in 2020, which was met largely through imports given the absence of commercial semiconductor fabs in India.

For design-linked incentive (DLI) scheme, which involves designing and deployment of semiconductor design for integrated circuits (ICs), chipsets, system on chips (SoCs), systems & IP Cores will get up to 50 percent of the expenditure with a limit of Rs 15,000 crore per application and DLI of 6 percent to 4 percent on net sales turnover for over five years with a cap of R. 30,000 crore.

The scheme for setting up display fabs to manufacture TFT LCD/ AMOLED displays includes reimbursement of up to 50 percent of the project cost with a cap of Rs 12,000 crore per fab.