Boosted by the defeat of the motion against FDI in multi-brand retail, the Government may consider two big policy proposals on Thursday.
A highly placed Government source told Business Line , “The Cabinet is likely to consider constitution of Cabinet Committee on Investment or National Investment Board (NIB). After the Cabinet meeting, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) may take a call on the proposal about new investment policy in urea sector.” Both these proposals aim to accelerate investment.
The Finance Ministry has approached the Cabinet with the proposal for constitution for new investment body. This proposal intends to expedite clearances for projects where the investment size is Rs 1,000 crore or more in sectors such as infrastructure and manufacturing.
“The name of the proposed mechanism is to be decided by the Cabinet, but one thing is clear – it will be headed by the Prime Minister. He will nominate members for the new body,” the source added. There is proposal to constitute a dedicated secretariat for the proposed body to be located in the Cabinet Secretariat
He also said that this proposed body will prescribe time limits for approvals and clearance and require statutory authorities to abide by a time frame for taking decisions. The proposed body may also take decisions regarding specific approvals for unduly delayed projects.
Once the decision of the body is notified, it will be binding on all the ministries and departments. The Secretariat will also monitor the implementation of the decision as well as the implementation of the projects, the source informed.
However, some ministries are not very excited about the new concept. Concerns have been raised by Ministries such as Environment, Mines and the Defence. However, the Power and Coal Ministries have supported the concept, the official added.
New Investment Policy for urea
Meanwhile, the investment policy for urea intends to end the drought of new capacity addition in this sector. There have been no fresh investments in urea in the past 13 years due to the absence of an appropriate policy framework.
This has widened the demand supply-gap over the past decade. At present, the country faces a shortfall of 7 million tonnes, which is bridged through imports.
The Government had notified a policy in September 2008 for new investments in urea and long-term off-take through joint ventures abroad. This helped the industry revamp its existing capacities by removing bottlenecks and increase the output by 2 mtpa.
However, it did not bring any new investments either through greenfield or brownfield units.
shishir.sinha@thehindu.co.in