New FDI norms remove ambiguity: Finance Secretary

TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi-Government has done away with additional layer of approvals as well as removed ambiguities in the provisions while further opening doors for foreign investments in nine sectors, Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa said today. “There were two considerations overriding in the FDI policy. One was to remove such phrases or provisions which had any ambiguity, or which would lead to interpretation by one person which someone else will question.

“The second overriding consideration of FDI policy was wherever there was a law which prevails, wherever there are regulations which the companies are supposed to adhere to, those laws will be adequate to deal with the concerns of that particular sector,” he said at an event here. Earlier this week the government unleashed second wave of FDI reforms allowing 100 per cent inflows in civil aviation and food processing sectors while easing norms in defence and pharmaceuticals.

A significant change in local sourcing policy for single-brand retail trading could now enable US-based Apple Inc to open stores. Under the revamped policy companies using cutting edge or state of art technology will be exempted from meeting the local sourcing norm for up to first three years. Thereafter, in the next five years the company will have to meet the domestic sourcing norm at an annualised average rate of 30 per cent. Lava said ‘state of the art’ is one expression which was creating ambiguity.