Electronics manufacturing industry needs more sops

A government official stated that India’s electronics industry needs additional sops such as cheap credit and incentives for export along with infrastructure support in order to flourish and compete with China, Vietnam and Thailand. This would attract companies looking to relocate manufacturing facilities. He also stated that these could be along the lines of the benefits accrued to Indian exporters – tax credit in the range of 2-5% – under the existing Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS). Other options that can be explored include interest subvention scheme for cheaper loans and a credit guarantee scheme for plant and machinery. “This should be 2.0 (second) version of the electronic manufacturing cluster (EMC) scheme, which is aimed at creating an ecosystem with an anchor company plus its suppliers to operate in the same area,” he added.