Discussions are under way to further liberalise the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy, the Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, has said.
Presenting the Budget, he said, “all prior regulations and guidelines have earlier been consolidated into one comprehensive document in order to make FDI policy more user-friendly. This is reviewed every six months. The last review was released in September 2010”
FDI during April-December this fiscal declined by 23 per cent to $ 16 billion from $ 20.8 billion in the same period last year.
The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion is in the process of evaluating the comments, which it has received on its discussion paper on liberalising FDI in multi-brand retail and the defence sector.
Currently, FDI is not permitted in multi-brand retail and only 26 per cent is allowed in defence manufacturing.
In the paper on FDI in defence, the Industry Ministry had favoured 75 per cent foreign investment. However, the Ministry of Defence is known to have opposed increasing the FDI cap beyond the existing 26 per cent.
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