Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has mooted setting up a National Investment Board to be chaired by the Prime Minister to take a call on projects over Rs 1,000 crore.
Intervening during the meeting of Full Planning Commission chaired by the Prime Minister on Saturday, he said: “At present, the Allocation of Business Rules allocates the authority to take the final decision/decisions to one or more ministries. In fact, this is the reason why a truly ‘final’ decision does not emerge for many years.”
That is why it is suggested final decision(s) should be vested in a National Investment Board to be chaired by the Prime Minister and the Allocation of Business Rules should be amended to create such a mechanism, he said.
The Board’s authority should extend to proposals/projects where the investment is above a certain threshold, say, Rs 1,000 crore. Once the Board takes the final decision, no other Ministry or Department or Authority should be able to interfere with that decision or delay its implementation, he advised.