The Cabinet on Wednesday approved the abolition of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board, ANI reported. The 25-year-old board used to scrutinise foreign direct investment proposals that needed the Centre’s approval.
In his Budget speech on February 1, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said the board, which falls under his ministry’s purview, would be shut down. The board was set up by the Prime Minister’s Office during the country’s economic liberalisation phase in the 1990s, PTI reported.
As of now, the Centre has allowed foreign direct investment in 11 sectors including defence and retail, which are subject to government approval. “With the government easing the process of doing business by eliminating discretion and adopting market mechanism for allocation of resources, the industry does not have to visit corridors of power anymore. And in that series of reforms, efforts are being made to simplify direct and indirect tax structure,” PTI had quoted Jaitley as saying.
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