The cabinet has come out with a strong move to push the economy and announced some big reforms in the automobile and telecom sectors of India ,starting from production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme to rationalising AGR definition to digitising KYC. Union minister Anurag Thakur said the government has approved the PLI scheme in the auto and drone industries. At the same time, the Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the Union cabinet rationalised the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) definition by excluding non-telecom revenue of telcos from payment of statutory levies. AGR refers to revenues that are considered for payment of statutory dues.
He said Rs 26,058 crore has been allocated to both these sectors for the next five years — Rs 25,938 crore to the auto sector and Rs 120 crore to the done sector. It is expected to bring in investments close to Rs 4,75,000 crore over the next five years, he said.
“The PLI scheme for drones will bring fresh investments of over Rs 5,000 crore in three years and incremental production of over Rs 1,500 crore and this scheme will eventually enable India to leapfrog to environmentally cleaner, electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
The PLI scheme for the automobile sector will also create additional employment of over 7.6 lakh people, the government said. This will also create an investment opportunity of Rs 42,500 crore in the automobile sector over the next five years.
Anurag Thakur said, speaking of new technology, the PLI scheme has been brought keeping in mind the needs of the present as well as the future, and for local markets too, so that we strengthen our industry.
Speaking about the issue of AGR, Ashwini Vaishnaw said, “PM [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi took a bold decision over AGR (adjusted gross revenue) today. A decision has been taken to rationalise the definition of AGR. All non-telecom revenue will be taken out of the AGR. Now there will be annual compounding.
Ashwini Vaishnaw further said, “In the telecom sector, nine structural reforms and five process reforms have been approved by the cabinet. These reforms will change the framework of the entire telecom sector. They will deepen and broaden the industry.”
The spectrum auction will be held in the last quarter of the financial year, Ashwini Vaishnaw said. He further said that 100 per cent FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) in telecom via the automatic route was approved by the Cabinet.
Among the measures approved were a four-year moratorium on unpaid dues, AGR and spectrum dues, he said. These measures are expected to ease the cash flow issues being faced by some players in the industry.
