New Delhi: The Union Government on Monday informed the Rajya Sabha that the annual sales turnover of the Indian drone manufacturing industry may grow from approximately Rs 60 crore in 2020-21 to around Rs 900 crore by 2024-25. The information was shared by the Minister of State (MoS) for Civil Aviation Gen Dr VK Singh (Retired) in a written reply on Monday.
The MoS stated that the turnover and employment of the Indian drone industry is likely to increase manifold over the next three years given the kind of policies the ministry has been taking. "The Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for drones and drone components was notified on 30th September 2021. The Government will provide a total incentive of Rs 120 crores, spread over three financial years," stated Singh.
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"A provisional list of 23 PLI beneficiaries was released on 6th July 2022. The beneficiaries include 12 drone manufacturers and 11 drone component, manufacturers. The combined annual sales turnover of the PLI beneficiaries has increased from approximately Rs 88 crore in FY 2020-21 to approximately Rs 319 crore in FY 2021-22," stated the MoS.
As for the value of imports of drones and drone parts, Singh stated that according to the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), a separate tariff line (8806) was created vide Finance Act 2021, which came into effect from 1st January 2022 adding there is no specific accounting of actual drone imports effected prior to this date.
"Thereafter on 9th February 2022, DGFT, vide notification No. 54/2015-2020, prohibited import of drones, except for R&D, defence and security purposes," stated Singh. Drone parts are imported under various other tariff lines. "Further such generic parts may be be used in assembly of equipment other than drones as well. Hence, according to DGFT, obtaining import statistics for drone parts is not feasible," he added.
