Nokia, Ericsson want PLI scheme to cover past investment too

New Delhi: Finland’s Nokia and Sweden’s Ericsson want India to include their existing manufacturing-related investments in the production-linked incentives (PLI) scheme, which was recently announced by the government for telecom and networking products. The scheme is expected to support and incentivise exports from India, similar to the plan which has kicked off for the mobile handset industry. The European telecom gear vendors also want India to focus on bringing the component ecosystem under the new scheme, which aims at giving sops of nearly Rs 12,200 crore. “Cost levels in India productions are a little higher than other countries, so I really welcome this kind of a policy which is coming up to provide incentives for local manufacturers because that really helps the Indian economy,” Sanjay Malik, the India market head for Nokia told ET. “The whole policy framework is known at a very high level... We are also awaiting details. but there’s only one appeal from my side that it (scheme) should be looking at providing these incentives for future as well as for the past investment.” Ericsson’s India head Nitin Bansal also said that “investments that are already made should also be considered in some way under the PLI scheme”. Both gear vendors have given commitment to their largest client, Bharti Airtel, that all 5G equipment will be locally manufactured. Ericsson and Nokia manufacture telecom gear in India through respective facilities in Pune and Chennai. Both companies also export telecom equipment, including 5G gear, to other countries.

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