Finance Minister To Take Up 46 FDI Proposals Next Week.

The Indian government will take up 46 foreign investment proposals including that of Dhanalakshmi Bank and Honda Motors India next week.

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board meeting to be chaired by the Department of Economic Affairs Secretary, Mr R Gopalan will take place on April 20. Of the 46 investment proposals, 25 are new while the rest are those in which decisions were deferred during the previous FIPB meetings.

The 165th FIPB meeting is the first one after the Government announced major changes in FDI norms on March 31. The board is mandated to consider and recommend proposals relating to FDI under the Government route.

Besides the proposals by Dhanalakshmi Bank and Honda Motors on the agenda of the board, the other new applicants include G4S Security Services (India) and Park Control and Communications Ltd, Bangalore.

During the last meeting, the board had approved 14 FDI proposals, including that of Mauritius-based Ghir Investments totaling INR 1,289.85 crore. The meeting was held on March 11.

As per the meeting agenda, the panel is also likely to take a decision on pending cases including those of Punj Lloyd, Lokmat Media Ltd, Arshiya International and Pran Beverages (India) Pvt Ltd. During the 11 month (April to February) period this fiscal, FDI inflows into India declined by 25% to USD 18.3 billion.

With an aim to attract larger FDI inflows into the country, the government has been taking several steps, including simplification and rationalisation of the policy.

On March 31, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, the nodal agency on FDI policy, had effected several major changes in the norms.

Besides allowing greater flexibility to Indian firms to raise overseas capital, the Government also scrapped the norms that required a foreign company to obtain its domestic joint venture partner’s approval for making investments in the same field outside the joint venture.

The new norms also allow Indian companies to issue equity against import of capital goods. The facility of conversion of capital goods import into equity was earlier available only to companies raising external commercial borrowings.

The policy regarding foreign investment for production and development of agriculture seeds and planting material has also been liberalized.

Source : steelguru.com