The Union Cabinet has approved abolition of the 25 year old body, the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB).
“Going forward, only 11 sectors will need prior approval for foreign investment and decisions to that effect will be taken by the respective ministries in consultation with Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, ” said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
“In some cases references may be made to the home ministry for permission,” he added.
“Over the last few years, 91-95 percent of FDI has been coming via the automatic route, reducing the need for FIPB, the finance minister said. Scrapping the 25-year old body will help ease of doing business,”Jaitley added.
The FIPB is responsible for approving foreign investment proposals that was initially constituted under the the Prime Minister’s Office in the wake of the economic liberalisation of the early 1990s.
In the Union Budget 2017-18, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had also proposed the abolishing of the inter-ministerial body, which comes under the Department of Economic Affairs
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