Extension of MSIPS will further stimulate investments in electronics manufacturing to reduce India’s dependence on imports and achieve the ambitious goal of ‘net zero imports’ of electronics by 2020
By Sudeshna Das
The government has given approval to extend the term of the Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme (MSIPS). “The MSIPS has been extended for a period of five years beyond July 26, 2015. Extension of the scheme will further accelerate the growth of the electronics manufacturing industry in the country by generating investment interest in this sector. It will provide a boost to making India a global destination for electronics manufacturing. Moreover, the scope of the scheme has expanded to cover new product categories and the process has been simplified to a great extent, “says Dr Ajay Kumar, additional secretary, Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY).
The new categories covered under the scheme include smartcards, consumer appliances, electronics product design, optical fibre, Internet of Things products, semiconductor chips, etc.
This move has been much awaited since this policy is vital to support the current interest in investing in the Indian electronics sector, which the government has been pushing since the last few years. The benefits under the scheme are available for expansion projects as well as greenfield projects. This extension will help the Indian electronics industry to scale up domestic manufacturing to reduce its dependence on imports and achieve the ambitious goal of ‘net zero imports’ in electronics by 2020.
Extending MSIPS will further stimulate investments in electronics manufacturing and the development of electronics clusters. “It is extremely heartening that the MSIPS has been extended by five years and will go hand in hand with the Electronics Manufacturing Cluster Policy. All stakeholders, domestic and global, from the electronics manufacturing industry have been watching this policy keenly as it has played a key role in generating strong interest and encouraged investments in electronics manufacturing,” says Rajoo Goel, secretary general, ELCINA.
If the MSIPS had not been extended, the entire initiative of establishing electronics manufacturing clusters and populating them with manufacturing units would have died out and the momentum gained over the last three years would have been lost. Expanding the list of items covered under MSIPS and simplifying procedures is an added bonus. Goel states, “Enabling more and more investments by small and medium enterprises is as important as investments by large companies because the main objective of MSIPS is to strengthen the supply chain and local value addition which can be achieved only through extensive participation of the MSME sector.” Subhash Goyal, president, ELCINA expresses deep satisfaction and relief at the extension of the MSIPS and says, “This extension would ensure continuity of the virtuous cycle created by the National Policy on Electronics which needs to be sustained for at least five to ten more years to bring India at par with the global leaders in the ESDM sector.”
Dr Ajay Kumar, additional secretary, Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY)
“The MSIPS scheme has been extended for a period of five years beyond July 26, 2015. Extension of the scheme will further accelerate the growth of the electronics manufacturing industry in the country by generating interest in investing in this sector. It will provide a boost to making India a global destination for electronics manufacturing. Moreover, the scope of the scheme has expanded to cover new product categories and the process has been simplified to a great extent.
Subhash Goyal, president, ELCINA & managing director, Digital Circuits
“This extension would ensure continuity of the virtuous cycle created by the National Policy on Electronics which needs to be sustained for at least five to ten more years to bring India at par with the global leaders in the ESDM sector.
MSIPS becomes more industry friendly
- The incentive is allowed from the date of submitting the application
- Disbursement of benefits will be done on a quarterly basis rather than annually
- Benefits will be available across the country as opposed to only in notified areas.
The new categories covered under the scheme include smartcards, consumer appliances, electronics product design, optical fibre, Internet of Things products, semiconductor chips, etc.
M. N. Vidyashankar, president, India Electronics & Semiconductor Association (IESA)
“IESA welcomes GOI’s decision to extend the much needed initiative of MSIPS, by five years. The extension of MSIPs combined with the increased scope of the scheme to cover more products by including 15 more categories will definitely benefit the industry a lot and is the perfect booster dose to the sector.
