The Phased Manufacturing Programme (PMP) is a government scheme and concept designed to promote indigenous manufacturing and increase domestic value addition across specific sectors in India. It was first introduced for the electronics sector, with the initial phase for mobile phone handsets beginning in 2015 and a broader PMP for mobile phones and their sub-assemblies notified in 2017 by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). The PMP was created under the umbrella of the Make in India initiative to solve the problem of India's overwhelming dependence on imports, particularly in electronics, and to transform the country into a global manufacturing hub.
The mechanism works by implementing a graded duty structure or differential duty dispensation. This structure progressively increases the Basic Customs Duty (BCD) on the import of finished products and their components over a multi-year roadmap, while simultaneously reducing or exempting duties on raw materials and inputs. This creates a cost advantage for manufacturers who shift from importing Semi Knocked Down (SKD) kits to local assembly and then to manufacturing components domestically, moving towards a Completely Knocked Down (CKD) level of production. For example, the PMP targeted the local manufacturing of populated PCBs in 2018-19 and display assembly in 2019-20.
The PMP is closely connected to the National Policy on Electronics (NPE) 2019 and the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for large-scale electronics manufacturing, which was notified on April 1, 2020, and largely succeeded the PMP's role in the electronics sector. The PMP concept has also been applied to the automotive sector, where the Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI) notified a PMP to promote indigenous manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (EVs) and their parts, linking it to the incentives under the FAME Phase-II scheme. The PMP for EVs has been recently amended under the new PM E-DRIVE scheme, with MHI mandating the domestic production of components for EV public charging stations, such as AC-to-DC converters, by December 1, 2025.