Production Linked Incentive Scheme for Food Processing Industry (PLISFPI)

What is the PLI Scheme for Food Processing Industry?

The Production Linked Incentive Scheme for Food Processing Industry (PLISFPI) is a Central Sector scheme of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries, approved by the Union Cabinet on 31 March 2021 with an outlay of Rs 10,900 crore. The scheme runs for six years, from FY 2021-22 to FY 2026-27.

PLISFPI is not a subsidy on plant and machinery. It is a performance-linked payment: a selected manufacturer receives a percentage of its incremental sales of approved food products over a base year, provided it also completes the investment it committed to at the application stage.

The stated objectives on the MoFPI portal are to support creation of global food manufacturing champions, promote Indian brands of food products abroad, increase off-farm employment, and improve realisation for farmers.

The three components

• Category I; large applicants incentivised on sales and investment for four segments: Ready to Cook / Ready to Eat (RTC/RTE) including millet-based foods, Processed Fruits & Vegetables, Marine Products, and Mozzarella Cheese.
• Category II, SMEs manufacturing innovative or organic products across those four segments, including free range eggs, poultry meat and egg products, incentivised on sales alone.
• Category III: applicants applying solely for branding and marketing abroad of Indian food brands.

Where do poultry, meat and egg products fit in PLISFPI?

Poultry meat, free range eggs and egg products enter PLISFPI through Category II only. The scheme guidelines define the second component as incentivising innovative and organic products of SMEs across the four food product segments, "including Free Range - Eggs, Poultry Meat & Egg Products".

This matters because Category I has no poultry or meat segment of its own. A large integrated poultry processor selling ordinary dressed chicken cannot enter Category I on that product line. An SME selling, for example, certified free range eggs or an innovative egg product could apply under Category II, where the eligibility bar was far lower. An Udyog Aadhaar or Udyam registration and minimum sales of Rs 1 crore in 2019-20 for each product proposed for incentive.

Category II selection weighted innovativeness and novelty of the product at 40%: covering patents, USP, recognition, special characteristics, business plan, export potential, scalability and the share of own manufacturing in total sales, with sales of the product at 25%, three-year CAGR at 15%, past investment at 10% and availability of funds at 10%. For organic products the weightings differed slightly, with 30% on USP and product development.

Who was eligible for PLISFPI?

Eligible applicants were proprietary firms, partnership firms, LLPs, companies registered in India, cooperatives, and SMEs, all engaged in manufacturing food products in India.

Category I minimum thresholds (base year 2019-20):

Category II required Udyog Aadhaar or Udyami registration, minimum sales of Rs 1 crore in 2019-20 for each innovative or organic product, and APEDA registration where the product was organic.

Category III covered only Indian brands selling food products completely manufactured in India.

You cannot apply or are not eligible if:

• You are an individual seeking a personal benefit. PLISFPI is an industrial incentive for manufacturing entities; there is no citizen application.
• You are a new applicant today. Selection windows have closed, see the section below.
• Your product falls in an excluded category. RTE/RTC excludes rice, atta, sugar, pulses and edible oil, and also pizza, pasta, noodles and spaghetti (HSN 1902), breakfast cereals (HSN 1904), confectionery (HSN 1704, 1806), malt-based drinks and powders (HSN 1901) and packaged shelled, roasted or processed nuts (HSN 0802).
• Your manufacturing chain is not entirely in India. The whole chain including primary processing must be in India, except for additives, flavours and edible oils.
• You have been declared bankrupt, a wilful defaulter or a defaulter, been reported as fraud by a bank, NBFC or financial institution, or you or your promoters appear on the SEBI debarred list.

Is PLISFPI still open for new applications?

No; PLISFPI is closed to fresh selection. Under the guidelines, the EoI for Category I was released once, in 2021-22, and covered the entire programme period. EoIs for Category II SMEs and Category III branding applicants were provided for in each of the first three years only to 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24, depending on availability of funds.

The first EoI was issued on 2 May 2021 with applications closing on 24 June 2021 after an extension. That round drew 274 applications: 91 in Category I, 89 in Category II and 94 in Category III. The approval committee cleared 60 Category I, 12 Category II and 71 Category III applicants from that round.

As of the Ministry's April 2026 update, 165 applications have been approved across all categories, covering 274 project locations. The windows currently shown on plimofpi.ifciltd.com are incentive claim windows for existing beneficiaries: millet incentive claims to 30 November 2026, Category I, II and III claims to 31 December 2026, and product addition or HSN revision to 30 September 2026 — not a fresh application window.

How to apply under PLISFPI

For the record, and for any future EoI round, this is the process the guidelines prescribe:

1. Wait for an Expression of Interest to be published by MoFPI. No application is accepted outside the application window specified in the EoI.
2. Choose your category and segment, Category I on sales and investment, Category II as an SME with an innovative or organic product, or Category III for branding abroad only. A Category I applicant must file a separate application for each segment and meet the sales and investment bar for each.
3. Register on the PLISFPI online portal maintained by the Project Management Agency at plimofpi.ifciltd.com.
4. Complete the prescribed application form; Annexure-1A, 1B or 1C, listing your own and your contract manufacturers' manufacturing sites.
5. Pay the non-refundable application fee: Rs 1,00,000 for Category I, Rs 10,000 for Category II, and for Category III Rs 10,000 for SMEs and Rs 50,000 for other applicants.
6. Attach the undertaking consenting to audit of your manufacturing sites and offices, plus audited financials, registrations and supporting documents.
7. Respond to the PMA's scrutiny within 10 working days. The PMA acknowledges or flags an application within 15 working days; an incomplete application not corrected within 10 working days is rejected.
8. Await approval from the Inter-Ministerial Approval Committee, then furnish the bank guarantee and begin reporting investment and sales.

How much incentive does PLISFPI pay?

Incentive equals incremental sales in the approved product segment multiplied by the rate for that year:

Value added marine products carry 10% for all six years.

The base year is FY 2019-20 for the first four years, shifting to 2021-22 for year five and 2022-23 for year six. A beneficiary must also achieve a minimum CAGR in sales to claim anything at all, 10% for RTC/RTE, 10% for processed fruits and vegetables, 5% for marine products and 15% for mozzarella cheese.

For branding and marketing abroad, the grant is 50% of expenditure, capped at 3% of sales of food products or Rs 50 crore per year, whichever is less. Eligible activities include in-store branding, shelf space rental, listing fees, electronic, social, print and outdoor media and commercial advertising. Trade discounts, distribution costs and overseas logistics are excluded.

Incentive for a year is paid in the following year, so 2026-27 incentive falls due in 2027-28.

What are the investment obligations?

Investment means expenditure on new plant and machinery, technical civil work and associated infrastructure, with associated infrastructure limited to 20% of the investment in new plant and machinery. Investment had to be made in 2021-22 and 2022-23, with plant and machinery already installed in 2020-21 also counted. Installation, civil work and commencement of commercial production had to fall between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2023.

If committed investment is not completed on time, 10% of the incentive due for years one and two is deducted. If it is completed by the end of year two, the year-one deduction is refunded. If it is still incomplete at the end of year three, the applicant is removed from the sales-based incentive and the bank guarantee is invoked.

What has PLISFPI achieved?

By February 2026, according to Ministry data, PLISFPI beneficiaries had reported investment of Rs 9,207 crore against a committed Rs 7,722 crore, created 34 lakh metric tonnes per annum of processing and preservation capacity, and generated about 3.39 lakh direct and indirect jobs: ahead of the 2.5 lakh job target for 2026-27. Incentives worth Rs 2,162.55 crore had been disbursed. Approved beneficiaries include 68 MSMEs and 40 contract manufacturing units across 22 states.

Where to get help for PLISFPI

• Project Management Agency (IFCI), email plimofpi[at]ifciltd[dot]com, telephone +91 9319019067 during office hours, contact Mr Saurabh Chaurasia, AGM.
• MoFPI PLIS division, Shri Surendra Singh, Joint Industrial Adviser, telephone 011-26406538.
• Scheme guidelines, FAQs and claim formats, the PLISFPI section of mofpi.gov.in.
• Grievances: pgportal.gov.in, selecting the Ministry of Food Processing Industries.

PLISFPI has no application route for individual citizens or farmers. If you are a small food entrepreneur looking for capital support rather than a sales-linked incentive, the PM Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises (PMFME) scheme and the PMKSY component schemes are the routes that actually accept individual applications.

Who is eligible

PLISFPI eligibility is fixed at the category an applicant chose during the closed EoI windows. Use this checklist to see which bucket, if any, an entity fits.

Entity type: qualifies

• Proprietary firms, partnership firms, LLPs and companies registered in India
• Cooperatives engaged in food manufacturing
• SMEs registered under Udyog Aadhaar or Udyam
• Contract manufacturers, provided 100% of the contracted unit's output is counted against the applicant, not sold separately

Entity type: does not qualify

• Individuals or households seeking a personal or livelihood benefit
• Traders, aggregators or exporters who do not themselves manufacture the food product
• Entities whose manufacturing chain runs partly outside India (only additives, flavours and edible oils may be sourced abroad)

Category I checklist (large applicants, sales plus investment)

• Base year 2019-20 sales of all food products meet the segment floor: Rs 500 crore (RTC/RTE), Rs 250 crore (Processed Fruits & Vegetables), Rs 600 crore (Marine Products), Rs 150 crore (Mozzarella Cheese)
• Committed minimum investment matches the segment: Rs 100 crore, Rs 50 crore, Rs 75 crore, or Rs 23 crore for a 10 MTPD mozzarella plant
• A separate application filed for each segment being claimed
• Product falls inside the defined segment and not in an excluded HSN code

Category II checklist (SME, innovative or organic product)

• Valid Udyog Aadhaar or Udyam registration held at the time of application
• Minimum 2019-20 sales of Rs 1 crore for each specific product proposed for incentive
• APEDA registration in hand if the product is claimed as organic
• Product is genuinely innovative, novel, or organic, since this is scored at up to 40% of the selection weight

Category III checklist (branding and marketing abroad only)

• The brand is Indian-owned
• The food product carrying the brand is completely manufactured in India
• Application fee tier confirmed: Rs 10,000 for an SME applicant, Rs 50,000 for any other applicant

Disqualifying conditions, any category

• Entity or its promoters declared bankrupt, a wilful defaulter, or reported as fraud by a bank, NBFC or financial institution
• Entity or its promoters appear on the SEBI debarred list
• Applying today as a fresh entrant: all three EoI windows (2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24) are closed, so this checklist now only matters for verifying the status of an existing approval, not for a new bid

How to check your application status

PLISFPI has no citizen-facing tracking number system; status checks apply to entities that already filed an EoI application or that are approved beneficiaries filing claims.

1. Log in to the PLISFPI portal. Go to plimofpi.ifciltd.com and sign in with the credentials created at the time of EoI application. Portal status typically shows one of: application under scrutiny, incomplete (flagged by the PMA), forwarded to the Inter-Ministerial Approval Committee, approved, or rejected.
2. Check for a scrutiny communication. The Project Management Agency (PMA) is required to acknowledge or flag an EoI application within 15 working days of submission. If nothing has arrived in that window, treat the application as still queued rather than lost, since volumes across 274 applications in the first round caused delays.
3. Respond to any deficiency notice within 10 working days. An application flagged as incomplete and not corrected inside this window is treated as rejected on the portal; the applicant then has no automatic route back into that EoI round.
4. For claim status (approved beneficiaries), check the claim window and disbursement status on the portal under the relevant claim category: millet incentive, Category I, II or III sales incentive, or product addition/HSN revision. Disbursement following approval typically follows the yearly cycle, where a given year's incentive becomes payable only in the following financial year.
5. Call or email the PMA for a direct update. Contact the Project Management Agency at IFCI, email plimofpi[at]ifciltd[dot]com or phone +91 9319019067, and reference the application or beneficiary ID. For claim disputes or Category-specific queries, this is faster than waiting on the portal to refresh.
6. Escalate to MoFPI directly for unresolved cases. If the PMA does not respond, contact the MoFPI PLIS division at 011-26406538, or file a grievance through pgportal.gov.in, selecting the Ministry of Food Processing Industries as the department.

Common reasons for rejection

• Sales or investment threshold not actually met in the base year. Category I applicants sometimes submit consolidated group turnover instead of the specific applicant entity's audited 2019-20 sales for the segment claimed. Fix: reconcile the exact segment-wise sales figure against the audited financial statement for 2019-20 before applying, not group or projected figures.
• Product falls inside an excluded HSN code. RTC/RTE applications have been rejected because the product is actually rice, atta, sugar, pulses, edible oil, pizza, pasta, noodles, spaghetti (HSN 1902), breakfast cereals (HSN 1904), confectionery (HSN 1704/1806), malt-based drinks (HSN 1901) or packaged nuts (HSN 0802). Fix: check the product's HSN classification against the exclusion list before selecting a segment, since no exception is made for a product that is otherwise similar to an eligible one.
• Manufacturing chain not entirely within India. An applicant sourcing a primary processing step from outside India, beyond the permitted additives, flavours and edible oils, is disqualified on that product line. Fix: document the full manufacturing chain location for the specific product before filing, and drop any product line that fails this test rather than risk the whole application.
• Application not corrected within the 10 working day deficiency window. A large share of rejections in the first EoI round were procedural: the PMA flagged missing annexures, an unsigned undertaking, or an incomplete Chartered Engineer certificate, and the applicant did not respond within 10 working days. Fix: assign someone to monitor the portal and email daily once an application is submitted, since the correction clock runs from the PMA's flag date, not from when the applicant notices it.
• Missing or defective Chartered Engineer certification. Investment claims were rejected where the CE (Mechanical) certificate for plant and machinery or the CE (Civil) certificate for technical civil work did not match the claimed investment figure or covered ineligible items. Fix: have the certifying engineer cross-check the certificate figures line by line against the investment claimed in the application before submission.
• Bank guarantee not furnished in the prescribed format. Approved applicants have lost their slot for failing to furnish the bank guarantee in the exact prescribed format and value within the stipulated time after approval. Fix: use the format annexed to the scheme guidelines exactly, and confirm the guarantee value and validity period with the PMA before the bank issues it.
• Entity or promoter found on a defaulter or debarment list. Applications from entities later found to be wilful defaulters, reported as fraud by a lender, or on the SEBI debarred list are rejected regardless of how strong the sales and investment case is. Fix: this is not correctable after the fact; an entity in this position cannot become eligible by resubmission.
• Non-refundable application fee paid at the wrong tier or not at all. Applications have been treated as incomplete where the fee paid did not match the category, for example an SME paying the general Category III fee instead of the SME fee, or vice versa. Fix: confirm the exact fee tier, Rs 1,00,000 for Category I, Rs 10,000 for Category II, Rs 10,000 (SME) or Rs 50,000 (other) for Category III, before making the payment.