New Delhi: Investors seeking government approval for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) will now have to obtain electronically generated unique number from the concerned authorities before filing requests with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board. The government’s move is expected to streamline as well as expedite the process of clearing FDI proposals in key sectors such as telecom, defence, direct to-home and commodity exchange.
The FIPB has made it compulsory for investors to fill in a ‘Mandatory Preliminary Application’ before moving application to the inter-ministerial Board, headed by Economic Affairs Secretary R Gopalan, for bringing in FDI.
“It has been decided that…the Mandatory Preliminary Application must be e-filed before filing any fresh or amendment applications with FIPB,” the Finance Ministry said.
FIPB considers those FDI proposals where the Government decides on the merits of the case — that is the applications which are not covered under ‘automatic route’.
On submission of the Mandatory Preliminary Application, a computer generated unique (FC Registration No) number will be allotted by the FIPB. It will have to be quoted by the investors in their applications before the FIPB.
In the mandatory performa, both domestic and foreign investors, will have to provide details like registration number of firms, name and number of contact persons, etc.
Earlier the government had made it mandatory to file complete details of the Directors in applications seeking FIPB approval in telecom, defense and private security services sectors. This was done with a security angle.
This requirement is also mandatory in case the foreign collaborator has Bangladesh, Chinese and Hong Kong registration or links.
