Govt eases process for processing FDI proposals

The Dollar Business Bureau

Keeping with its aim to promote ease of doing business, the Government has simplified the process for processing proposals of foreign direct investment (FDI) by doing away with the need to send the applications to the Revenue Department.

By doing amendments in the provision of standard operating mechanism for processing of foreign investment proposals, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) said on Tuesday that “marking of proposals to the revenue department for their comments has been discontinued with immediate effect.”

The step taken by the Department is aimed to further promote ease of doing business in India in order to attract more overseas investments.

Previously all the proposals of FDI were sent to the External Affairs Ministry and the Revenue Department for information.

After abolishing the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), which acted as a single window clearance for FDI proposals in India, the Government came up with the standard operating mechanism in June.

Under the mechanism, the Government would approve all FDI proposals that require clearance within a maximum time of 10 weeks, after receiving of the application.

In 2016-17, FDI into India surged by 9% to $43.48 billion.