Sitharaman advocates Production Linked Incentive for chemicals & petrochemicals sector to make India manufacturing hub
Jul 27, 2023
New Delhi [India], July 27 : Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said that the Central Government will consider the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) for the chemicals and petrochemicals sector to make India a manufacturing hub.
Speaking at the inauguration of the 3rd edition of the Summit on “Global Chemicals and Petrochemicals Manufacturing Hubs in India” (GCPMH 2023) organised by the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers in association with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Sitharaman said, "The existing size of this sector will have a major impact on the economy as it has 80 thousand products in the market."
She said the world is looking towards India for alternative investment destinations because it has a large domestic market.
The PLI Schemes have led to a significant increase in production, employment generation, and exports in the country. The government has implemented the scheme in 14 sectors with an incentive outlay of one lakh 97 thousand crore rupees to strengthen their production capabilities.
Highlighting India’s efficiency, Sitharamam said, “ India has set its sight on becoming energy independent by 2047 and achieving net zero by 2070”.
India is a global centre for the production, use and export of green hydrogen and its derivatives. The national green hydrogen mission has announced Rs. 19744 crores to begin with for the years 2023-24 to 2029-30.
Sitharaman added that net zero can not be achieved unless each industry and sector contribute to it.
The two-day summit started on July 27 till July 28 at Le Meridian, New Delhi.
Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Chemicals & Fertilizers Mansukh Mandaviya, Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers and New & Renewable Energy Bhagwanth Khuba, Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (IC), Department of Science & Technology Jitendra Singh and FICCI President Subhrakant Panda were present at the time of the inauguration.
Nirmala Sitharaman addressed the industrialists and said “Several significant sectors of the economy are directly impacted by the product that produces and therefore you are a major influencer of the economy and challenges are huge before you”.
Global leaders, CEOs, government officials, significant business players, state governments, and subject matter experts from all over the world participated in the summit and engaged in an open discussion about the major advancements, sectoral issues, and future direction of the Indian chemicals and petrochemicals industry.
“You need to adopt Industry 4.0 in a very big way and I am sure you are already doing it, but the rapidity with which you will do it will help you to overcome many of the challenges and the final thing is about skilling of the people”, stated Nirmala Sitharaman.
Sitharaman also spoke about the impact India made in the chemical sector and said,” The combined exports of major chemicals & petrochemicals in the year 2022-23 is USD 9 billion and its small increase of 2 per cent from the previous year’s export value”.
The finance minister indicated the increment in imports which is around USD 13.33 billion.
Nirmala Sitharaman further mentioned,” Global big such as Aramco Saudi Arabia, BASF, Rosneft, ADNOC, and Borealis have all started to look for joint ventures in India”.
Subhrakant Panda, FICCI president said, “Indian chemical sector is highly diversified with over 80000 commercial products. It has seen robust growth over the last decade, growing between 1.2-1.5 times that of GDP.
