India abolishes top foreign investment panel

NEW DELHI: India has abolished its top panel responsible for handling foreign direct investment (FDI) applications, a move the government says will improve the ease of doing business.
After the abolition of the inter-ministerial Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), different ministries will be responsible for clearing FDI proposals as per their sectors in consultation with the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
This change will "result in more inflow of FDI" and make India further attractive to foreign investors, the government said in a statement on Wednesday.
The board was set up to regulate FDI following India's landmark economic liberalisation in the 1990s.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley promised in his February budget presentation that the government would do away with the FIPB to further relax FDI policies.
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry said recently that India received US$60 billion in FDI in the year ended March 2017 compared with US$55.6 billion (RM237) in the 2015-16 financial year.
The government attributed the higher FDI inflow to its policy of opening up more sectors of the economy to foreign investors.
This deregulation had drastically reduced the FIPB's role in project clearances. — Bernama