Production Linked Incentive Scheme For Automobile And Auto Component Industry

What is the PLI Scheme for Automobile and Auto Component Industry?

The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Automobile and Auto Component Industry is an industrial-incentive scheme of the Ministry of Heavy Industries. It is designed to overcome cost disabilities faced by domestic manufacturers of Advanced Automotive Technology (AAT) products and to build local and global supply chains for higher-technology vehicles and components.

According to the Ministry of Heavy Industries, the scheme has a total budgetary outlay of Rs 25,938 crore over a five-year period. It pays incentives on the incremental sales of eligible AAT products over a base year, that is, the more an approved company grows its sales of qualifying advanced products, the more incentive it earns, within the limits set by the scheme.

Key features

• Industrial incentive administered by the Ministry of Heavy Industries.
• Total outlay of Rs 25,938 crore over five years.
• Incentive paid on incremental sales of Advanced Automotive Technology products.
• Two applicant categories: Champion OEM (complete vehicles) and Component Champion (components).
• Aimed at deepening localisation and promoting electric and other advanced-tech vehicles.

This is an incentive for companies. It is not a subsidy that individuals, dealers or vehicle buyers can apply for. The consumer-facing electric-vehicle demand subsidies sit under separate schemes such as FAME/PM E-DRIVE, not this one.

Who is eligible for the PLI Auto scheme?

A company could apply in one of two categories:

• Champion OEM incentive, for companies manufacturing complete Advanced Automotive Technology vehicles.
• Component Champion incentive — for companies manufacturing AAT components and sub-systems.

The scheme guidelines set revenue and investment thresholds for each category, with separate eligibility conditions for existing automotive companies and for new non-automotive investors entering the sector. Selected applicants had to commit new investment and meet the defined sales and localisation conditions to earn the incentive.

Who cannot apply:

• Individuals cannot apply. This is an industrial incentive, not a personal or household benefit, vehicle buyers, drivers and dealers are not applicants.
• Companies that do not meet the revenue and investment thresholds for a Champion OEM or Component Champion are not eligible.
• Companies whose products are not on the approved Advanced Automotive Technology list cannot earn the incentive, because only sales of qualifying AAT products count.

Because the application window for selecting Champion OEMs and Component Champions has closed and approved applicants have been notified, a new company generally cannot join the scheme now.

How much incentive does the scheme provide?

The incentive is calculated on the determined (incremental) sales value of eligible AAT products, using incentive slabs set in the scheme guidelines, within the overall outlay of Rs 25,938 crore. The incentive rises with the level of determined sales, and the scheme's structure ensures that only one incentive applies to a given product, at either the vehicle or the component level, not both.

The exact incentive percentages differ between the Champion OEM and Component Champion categories and across sales slabs, and are defined in the Ministry's scheme guidelines. Companies should read the current guidelines on the PLI-Auto portal for the precise slab applicable to their products rather than rely on a single headline rate.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the PLI Auto scheme

1. Confirm the applicant is a company that qualifies as a Champion OEM or Component Champion under the revenue and investment thresholds in the scheme guidelines.
2. Prepare the application dossier: company and financial documents, the committed investment and production plan, and details of the Advanced Automotive Technology products.
3. Apply to the Ministry of Heavy Industries through the PLI-Auto process (pliauto.in) during the notified application window, and undergo the Ministry's examination and approval.
4. Once approved and after making the committed investment, claim the incentive on eligible incremental AAT sales as per the disbursement mechanism, submitting the required sales and testing verification.

As the selection window has closed, prospective manufacturers should watch the Ministry of Heavy Industries and PLI-Auto portal for any fresh windows or successor schemes rather than assume the current window is open.

Help and where to check details

The scheme is administered by the Ministry of Heavy Industries. The official portal is pliauto.in, with programme information also on heavyindustries.gov.in, and the Ministry can be reached on 011-23061490. Because incentive slabs, thresholds and windows are defined in the Ministry's scheme guidelines and updated over time, companies should rely on the current guidelines on the official portal. This guide intentionally does not fix a single incentive percentage where the official slab structure could not be confirmed against a current source.

How to check your application status

Since approval and disbursement under this scheme run company to company through the Ministry of Heavy Industries rather than through a mass-applicant online portal, status checking works differently from a citizen welfare scheme.

• Approved Champion OEMs and Component Champions: your company's approval status was communicated directly by the Ministry of Heavy Industries at the close of the selection process, not through a public tracking number. If your company was selected, your point of contact is the officer or nodal cell in the Ministry that handled your application, not a portal login.
• Incremental sales and incentive claims already filed: once approved, a company files periodic claims on its determined (incremental) AAT sales. The status of a specific claim, whether it is under scrutiny, referred back for clarification, or cleared for disbursement, should be tracked through the same Ministry channel or nodal officer the company submitted the claim to, since the scheme guidelines route claim verification through the Ministry rather than a self-service dashboard.
• PLI-Auto portal (pliauto.in): check this for scheme circulars, guideline updates and any notices on claim cycles. It functions primarily as an information and application portal rather than a case-status tracker for individual companies.
• Phone follow-up: the Ministry of Heavy Industries can be reached at 011-23061490 for a status update on a pending application or claim. Have your company's application reference or approval letter details ready before calling, since the Ministry deals with company-level dossiers, not individual applicant IDs.
• Written follow-up: for a claim that has been pending for an extended period, a formal letter or email referencing your approval order and the claim period is the standard way to escalate, addressed to the Ministry's PLI-Auto nodal division rather than a general grievance cell.

Because this is a company-to-Ministry industrial scheme, there is no SMS alert or citizen-style tracking ID system. Companies that were never approved as a Champion OEM or Component Champion have no claim to track, since incentive eligibility begins only after Ministry approval.

Common reasons for rejection

Rejections under this scheme happen at two distinct stages, at the company selection stage (Champion OEM / Component Champion approval) and later at the incremental-sales claim stage. The reasons differ.

At the company selection / approval stage:

• Revenue or investment threshold not met. Each category, Champion OEM and Component Champion, and each sub-type, existing automotive company versus new non-automotive investor, carries its own minimum global or group revenue and committed investment threshold set in the scheme guidelines. An application from a company below the applicable threshold was rejected outright. The fix, for any future window, is to verify the exact threshold for your specific category before applying, not assume the headline figures apply uniformly.
• Products not on the approved Advanced Automotive Technology list. An application built around vehicles or components that do not fall within the defined AAT product list was not approved, because the scheme exists specifically to incentivise higher-technology products, not conventional vehicles or parts. The fix is to map your product portfolio against the official AAT list published with the scheme guidelines before applying, and to restructure the investment plan around genuinely qualifying products.
• Incomplete or unverifiable financial documentation. Audited financial statements that did not clearly establish the applicant's global or group revenue, or that could not be reconciled with the claimed investment capacity, weakened an application at the scrutiny stage. The fix is to submit audited accounts that directly and transparently support the revenue and investment figures claimed in the application, not summary figures without backing statements.
• Vague or unquantified investment and production plans. A plan that did not specify committed new investment amounts, timelines and projected AAT sales in concrete terms was harder to approve than one with clear, verifiable commitments. The fix is to submit a specific, milestone-based investment and production plan rather than a general statement of intent.
• Applying outside the notified window. Since the Champion OEM and Component Champion selection window has since closed, any company attempting to apply now, outside a fresh window, will not be considered under the original selection process. The fix is to monitor the Ministry of Heavy Industries and the PLI-Auto portal for any successor or supplementary scheme rather than submitting an application against a closed window.

At the incentive claim stage, for already-approved companies:

• Sales that do not qualify as "determined" incremental sales. Only sales of approved AAT products, calculated as an increase over the base year and net of any exclusions in the guidelines, count toward the incentive. Claims that included non-qualifying products, non-incremental sales, or sales outside the eligible period were reduced or rejected. The fix is to have finance and compliance teams calculate determined sales strictly per the formula in the scheme guidelines before filing a claim, not by total turnover.
• Missing GST or statutory sales verification. Since determined sales are cross-checked against GST and other statutory filings, a claim that cannot be reconciled against these records faces delay or rejection. The fix is to ensure GST filings for the claim period are complete, accurate and consistent with the sales figures declared in the claim.
• Localisation or committed-investment conditions not met. Where the approval carried conditions on localisation levels or investment milestones, a claim filed before those conditions were actually met was not payable. The fix is to confirm that all conditions attached to your specific approval have been satisfied, with documentary proof, before filing the corresponding claim.