The Government of India is seriously concerned about stagnant or falling ratings under the “Ease of Doing Business” indices and is committed to making Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) process easier for prospective investors.

In view of the representations and feedback received from the stakeholders after the FIPB was dismantled and a new approval regime was set in motion, the government has tweaked the process a bit.

The Commerce and Industry ministry has done away with the requirement of sending the applications to the Department of Revenue in Finance Ministry. Hitherto, all the proposals were being sent to the Department of Revenue for its information and comments.

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion has announced that marking of proposals to the revenue department for their comments has been “discontinued” with immediate effect.

The aforesaid policy shift is latest in the series of measures being taken to further promote ease of doing business in India and attract a larger inflow of FDI. In his budget speech in February 2017, the Finance Minister had promised to abolish Foreign Investment Promotion Board. Keeping its word, the government issued a Standard Operating Procedure in June 2017.

The government is committed to clear FDI proposals which still require government approval within a maximum of 10 weeks after the receipt of an application complete in all respects.

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About the author :

Bhumesh Verma is a Corporate Lawyer with over 2 decades of experience in advising domestic and international clients, with a place in “The A-List – India’s Top 100 Lawyers” by India Business Law Journal. He keeps writing frequently on FDI, M&A and other corporate matters. He can be reached at [email protected].