Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Pharmaceuticals

What is the PLI Scheme for Pharmaceuticals?

The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Pharmaceuticals is a central sector scheme of the Department of Pharmaceuticals, under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers. According to the Department, the scheme has a total outlay of Rs 15,000 crore and runs over the period FY 2020-21 to FY 2028-29, with incentives paid on incremental sales for six years from FY 2022-23 to FY 2027-28.

The PLI Scheme for Pharmaceuticals is designed to move Indian manufacturing up the value chain: away from dependence on low-margin, high-volume products and towards high-value products such as biopharmaceuticals and complex generics. It rewards companies that increase production and sales of these products in India.

Main objectives

• Promote domestic manufacturing of high-value pharmaceutical products.
• Reduce import dependence in complex and patented medicines.
• Improve the global competitiveness of the Indian pharmaceutical industry.
• Attract fresh investment and create skilled employment.

What does the PLI Scheme for Pharmaceuticals cover?

The scheme groups eligible products into three categories, per the Department of Pharmaceuticals guidelines:

Applicants are also placed into three groups by Global Manufacturing Revenue: Group A (Rs 5,000 crore or more), Group B (Rs 500 crore up to Rs 5,000 crore) and Group C (below Rs 500 crore). Each group has a ring-fenced share of the total outlay.

How much does the PLI Scheme for Pharmaceuticals provide?

Incentives are paid on incremental sales of eligible products over a base year, per the Department of Pharmaceuticals guidelines:

• Category 1 and Category 2 products to 10% of incremental sales for the first four years (FY 2022-23 to 2025-26), 8% in the fifth year (FY 2026-27) and 6% in the sixth year (FY 2027-28).
• Category 3 products to 5% for the first four years, 4% in the fifth year and 3% in the sixth year.

Eligibility is subject to a minimum cumulative incremental investment and a minimum percentage growth in sales of manufactured goods, both set out per group in the scheme guidelines.

The incentive is not open-ended. For Category 1 products the payout is capped at Rs 100 crore per applicant per year, so a very large manufacturer cannot draw an unlimited share of the outlay. Each selected applicant also has a ceiling on total incentive fixed against its committed investment and product category, and the incentive for any year is paid only after the applicant demonstrates the required incremental sales over the base year (FY 2019-20) and the committed cumulative investment for that year.

Payment follows a two-part release. According to the Department of Pharmaceuticals, 75% of the approved claim is released on order once the Project Management Agency verifies the claim, and the remaining 25% is released after the applicant submits final audited accounts for the year. This structure protects public money against over-claiming and ties the final rupee of incentive to audited performance rather than to a self-declared figure.

Who is eligible for the PLI Scheme for Pharmaceuticals?

A company can apply if it:

• Is a company registered in India that manufactures, or commits to manufacture, the eligible high-value products.
• Meets the Global Manufacturing Revenue threshold for Group A, B or C.
• Commits to the minimum investment and incremental-sales growth thresholds for its category and group.

You are not eligible if:

• You are an individual, student or job seeker seeking a personal grant, the PLI Scheme for Pharmaceuticals is a company incentive scheme with no individual benefit of any kind.
• Your product does not fall within the notified eligible-product list.
• Your company cannot meet the minimum investment or incremental-sales thresholds for its group.

Anyone offering personal "PLI Pharma registration" to individuals for a fee is running a scam, the scheme has no citizen application.

How to apply for the PLI Scheme for Pharmaceuticals

The PLI Scheme for Pharmaceuticals has no citizen application; the process is entirely for companies and was conducted online through the Department of Pharmaceuticals:

1. Register your company on the Department of Pharmaceuticals PLI portal (the application window was hosted on the Department's online system).
2. Confirm which product category (1, 2 or 3) and which revenue group (A, B or C) your company falls under.
3. Prepare the detailed project report, audited financials establishing your Global Manufacturing Revenue, and proof of manufacturing capability.
4. Submit the online application with the required documents and application fee.
5. If selected after appraisal by the supported Committee, execute the agreement and claim incentives against verified incremental sales each year.

Note: the application window has closed. Selected applicants are in the disbursement phase. Confirm the current status on the Department of Pharmaceuticals portal before acting on any claim about a reopened window.

Progress so far

According to the Department of Pharmaceuticals, 55 applicants were selected under the scheme across the three groups: 11 in Group A, 9 in Group B and 35 in Group C, of which 20 are MSMEs. The scheme has since moved into its disbursement phase, with incentives released against verified incremental sales; the first release under the scheme was Rs 166 crore. As of mid-2025, the Department reported cumulative investment in new plant, machinery and allied utilities worth about Rs 18,842 crore, with fresh capacity created at 28 greenfield manufacturing locations equipped to make approved formulations — including vaccines and biosimilars, and raw materials such as APIs and excipients. Because these figures are revised as claims are processed, confirm the latest numbers on pharmaceuticals.gov.in before relying on them.

The PLI Scheme for Pharmaceuticals sits alongside two related Department of Pharmaceuticals schemes, the PLI Scheme for Bulk Drugs (KSMs, Drug Intermediates and APIs) and the PLI Scheme for Medical Devices, which together target self-reliance across the pharmaceutical value chain.

How does the PLI Scheme for Pharmaceuticals differ from a subsidy?

The PLI Scheme for Pharmaceuticals is a performance-linked incentive, not a grant or upfront capital subsidy. Three features set it apart:

• Paid on incremental sales. A company earns its incentive only on the increase in sales of eligible products over an agreed base year, so it must genuinely produce and sell more high-value products.
• Category-based rates. The rate depends on the product category to 10% tapering to 6% for the most complex products (Categories 1 and 2), and 5% tapering to 3% for Category 3 to steering investment towards the highest-value products.
• Thresholds every year. A company must meet its committed cumulative investment and incremental-sales growth to earn the incentive; missing them can reduce or withhold the payout for that year.

Because of this design, real disbursement tracks how much selected companies actually manufacture and sell. It is not a guaranteed payment.

Help and where to verify details

There is no citizen helpline for the PLI Scheme for Pharmaceuticals because it has no individual application. Companies raise queries through the Department of Pharmaceuticals PLI portal. The scheme guidelines, eligible-product list, group allocations and the list of selected applicants are published on pharmaceuticals.gov.in and in PIB releases.

Treat any offer of personal "pharma PLI registration", any demand for a fee to "add your name", or any request for OTPs or bank details in the scheme's name as a scam. The scheme deals only with registered companies, never with individual beneficiaries.

How to check your application status

The PLI Scheme for Pharmaceuticals has no citizen-facing status tracker because there is no individual application to track. For the companies that did apply, status runs through the Department of Pharmaceuticals rather than a public online dashboard, and it works differently depending on which stage a company is at.

For companies still in the appraisal stage (relevant only to any future window the Department may open):

1. Log in to the applicant account used on the Department of Pharmaceuticals PLI portal, since the application itself was submitted through a company login, not a guest form.
2. Check the application reference number issued at submission; this is the number the Project Management Agency (PMA) uses to track a file internally.
3. Raise a written query through the portal's applicant communication channel if the appraisal is taking unusually long, quoting the reference number and the date of submission.
4. Escalate to the Department of Pharmaceuticals directly (by letter or email through official channels listed on pharmaceuticals.gov.in) only after the portal query has gone unanswered for a reasonable period.

For companies already selected and now claiming yearly incentives:

1. Submit the annual incremental-sales claim, supported by audited figures, through the process specified in the scheme guidelines for that disbursement year.
2. Track the claim through the Project Management Agency, which verifies incremental sales and investment figures against the company's committed thresholds before recommending release.
3. Expect the status to move in two stages: first, approval of the claim amount after PMA verification, and then release of 75% of that approved amount; the remaining 25% follows only after the company files final audited accounts for the year.
4. Contact the Department of Pharmaceuticals PLI cell directly for a claim that has cleared verification but not yet moved to disbursement, quoting the claim year and applicant group (A, B or C).

There is no SMS or portal-based real-time tracker of the kind used for individual welfare schemes. Because the scheme deals only with a fixed list of 55 selected companies, status information for any single claim sits with the Department and the PMA, not with a self-service citizen tool. An individual with no company involvement in the scheme has nothing to track and should be wary of any website or agent offering to "check PLI Pharma status" for a personal application, since no such application exists.

Common reasons for rejection

Because this is a company scheme with a fixed, ring-fenced outlay per group, rejections happen for reasons specific to how the scheme was designed, not for the generic paperwork mistakes seen in individual welfare schemes.

• Applicant did not meet the Global Manufacturing Revenue threshold for the claimed group. A company sometimes submits financials that do not clearly establish which of Group A, B or C it belongs to, or the audited figures place it in a different group than the one it applied under. The fix is to have the audited financial statements independently checked against the Department's Group A/B/C revenue definitions before submission, not after.

• Product does not fall within the notified eligible-product list. Some applicants proposed products adjacent to, but not actually named in, Category 1, 2 or 3 of the scheme guidelines (for example, a generic formulation that is not "complex" as defined by the Department). The fix is to map the exact proposed product against the Department's published category list line by line, rather than relying on a general description of the product line.

• Detailed project report understated or overstated committed investment. Since incentive ceilings are fixed against committed investment, a project report with vague or inconsistent investment figures gets sent back or scored down at appraisal. The fix is to have investment figures in the project report match, rupee for rupee, the figures in the audited financials and the claimed group threshold.

• Manufacturing capability not adequately evidenced. Some applications lacked concrete proof, such as existing plant capacity, machinery orders or technical collaboration agreements, that the company could actually manufacture the proposed high-value product in India. The fix is to attach documentary evidence of manufacturing capability rather than a narrative claim of capability.

• Incremental sales growth commitment set unrealistically low or inconsistent with the group's allocation. Since each group has a ring-fenced outlay and a minimum growth threshold, a proposal committing to marginal growth is less competitive against other applicants in the same group and risks being passed over when the group's allocation is exhausted. The fix is to benchmark the committed growth rate against what similar applicants in the same category and group are offering, rather than submitting the bare minimum.

• Claim-stage rejection or reduction for incentive years already running. For companies already selected, a yearly claim can be reduced or held back when the PMA's verification finds incremental sales or investment figures for that year fall short of the committed thresholds, or when the audited accounts submitted for the final 25% release do not match the claim filed earlier for the 75% tranche. The fix is to reconcile the year's audited accounts against the original claim figures before submission, and to flag any shortfall against committed thresholds to the Department in advance rather than after the claim is filed.

Because the application window itself is closed, these reasons are documented mainly to explain why some of the applicant pool sits in Group C rather than a higher group, and why a company's yearly disbursement can differ from its approved ceiling. They are not relevant to individuals, since no personal application exists under this scheme.