Four FDI media proposals await govt. nod

Four FDI media proposals await govt. nod

NEW DELHI: A total of 99 proposals including four relating to the information and broadcasting sector for foreign direct investment are pending before various ministries, the Parliament has been informed.

This follows the decision to entrust the work of granting government approval for FDI investment in eleven notified sectors/activities requiring government approval to the concerned  ministries/departments.

Commerce and industries minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the decisions would be taken under the extant FDI Policy and Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA),

The government, through the erstwhile Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), had already been considering and taking decisions on FDI proposals in the sectors on approval route.

Consequently, the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for processing FDI proposals was issued on 29 June, 2017.

According to the SOP, once the proposal is complete in all respects, which should not be later than six weeks/eight weeks (in cases where comments of the home ministry have been sought from security clearance point of view) from the receipt of the proposal, the competent authority will, within the next two weeks, process the proposal for decision and convey the same to the applicant.

In respect of proposals where the competent authority proposes to reject the proposals or in cases where conditions for approval are stipulated in addition to the conditions laid down in the FDI policy or sectoral laws/regulations, concurrence of Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion will compulsorily be sought within 8-10 weeks weeks (in cases where comments of the home ministry have been sought from security clearance point of view) from the receipt of the proposal.

The 99 FDI proposals pending in various ministries/departments are:

Name of Ministry/Department

No. of Proposals

Department of Economic Affairs

13

Department of Pharmaceuticals

14

Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion

48

Department of Telecommunications

  8

Department of Defence Production

  4

Ministry of  Home Affairs

  5

Ministry of Information and Broadcasting

  4

Department of Space

  2

Department of Financial Services

  1

Total

99

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