DIPP clears 19 proposals for defence production

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has cleared applications for industrial licences for defence production from major players such as Reliance Aerospace Technologies, Bharat Forge, Mahindra Telephonic Integrated Systems Ltd, Punj Lloyd and Tata Advanced Materials Ltd.

The Licensing Committee chaired by the DIPP Secretary last week cleared a total of 19 proposals for industrial licences many of which were in the defence sector, according to an official release.

Some of the applications were pending for a long time.

The Committee also discussed the possibility of removal of stipulation of annual capacity in the industrial licence and also to permit sale of licensed items to other entities under the control of the Home Ministry, State Governments, PSUs and other valid defence licensed companies without requiring approval of Department of Defence Production.

It was agreed that the above stipulation would be relaxed subject to submission of bi-annual returns by the unit, the release added.

The DIPP would shortly notify the above decision by issuing a Press Note.

In case of 14 pending defence applications, applicants were informed that licenses were not required anymore as a vast number of defence items had been delicensed.

“It has been possible to approve these cases as a consequence of the simplification of FDI policy through Press Note 7 which has raised the FDI cap in defence from 26 per cent to 49 per cent and permitted portfolio investments up to 24 per cent of the total equity of the investee and joint venture company under automatic route,” the release said.

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