The Union Cabinet is likely to take up the long-pending proposal for allowing foreign and domestic companies with manufacturing units in India to sell their products online through e-commerce platforms.

It may also consider allowing 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in white-labelled Automated Teller Machines (ATM) — those set up by private non-banking entities — under the automatic route.

“Both proposals framed by the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) are scheduled to be taken up by the Cabinet on Wednesday ,” a government official said. While the proposal to allow manufacturing companies sell online is likely to boost flow of FDI in the manufacturing sector, the automatic approval of FDI for white-labelled ATMs would result in faster growth of ATMs in small cities and towns.

According to the DIPP proposal, companies manufacturing in India, even those with FDI up to 100 per cent, will be permitted to sell their products through the e-commerce platform. This means that the restrictions imposed by the FDI policy on e-commerce companies with foreign investments to sell directly to consumers will not apply on companies with foreign investments that manufacture in the country.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced the government’s intention to allow this in his Budget speech in July last year.

The proposal on white-labelled ATMs, which is expected to speed up clearances and result in more such ATMs in smaller cities and towns, is in tandem with the government’s policy of greater financial inclusion. The RBI had taken up this initiative two years ago to expand reach of ATMs in semi-urban and rural areas.

According to the RBI’s guidelines, the white-labelled ATMs would provide banking services based on debit, credit or pre-paid cards issued by banks.

At present, foreign investment in white-labelled ATMs is allowed under the government approval route and all proposals have to be vetted by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board.

Over the past two years, the RBI has issued licences to just seven players and of these less than half have over 1,000 ATMs.

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