We have done whatever we can on the angel tax issue to give startups some relief. In the older cases, there could be some technical reasons why it is difficult to do these things from a backdate because it has some implications for other such cases. I’m going to leave that to the Department of Revenue. I don’t intend to take that up. It is for them to take a call. The finance minister spoke about FDI reforms…
As of now, the focus is on procedural changes. The idea is to have some standard operating procedure of three months’ time to process clearances which we will try to enforce more strictly. In terms of actual sectors, we don’t have any finality.
The Economic Survey has emphasised on investments from China. What is your take?
Right now, the government’s policy is to allow Press Note 3 cases only on the government route with inter-ministerial consultations. That policy continues and, in that policy, even now, we do take a balanced, calibrated, careful view when something is considered useful and important for the country. It is not as if there is a blanket ban even today. There are cases where the ministry or an inter-ministerial committee grants clearance where we feel it is useful for the country, or will help boost our manufacturing capacity.
So, no new mechanism will be put in place, right?
Thinking on how we can make it…that can go on independently in the government. Until it becomes a policy, there’s nothing to share. Internal discussions, even if they’re ongoing, I don’t have anything to share. Is there a thinking to push foreign companies to further enhance higher value addition? Some companies were not doing so as per reports?
In the Production Linked Incentives scheme in 3-4 sectors, domestic value addition (DVA) criteria are built into the scheme, but for the mobiles, apparently this is not. DVA is not a criteria but we’d like the DVA to improve irrespective of whether it is part of the scheme or not. DPIIT’s view is that there should be greater localisation. Across the government also, there is this recognition. That can only be done by developing a wider component and vendor ecosystem. In mobiles, the idea was to first kickstart. They would have not looked at DVA so much. Maybe, it’s a more scattered global supply chain and takes more time to build up localisation. I’m sure they’re thinking about it now because I’ve been hearing that they are looking at a components scheme as well.
Will Make in India be pushed through customs duty rejig and not so much through PLI?
I don’t think the two are either or. PLI is for various things, but in specific areas, you can also use import policy to trigger investment decisions by foreign investors. We’ve done that in some cases by combining QCOs with import tariffs. Recently, in certain restricted categories of tyres, we allowed MNCs to import with the condition that within two years, they set up product lines with greenfield investment in the country. We’ve had success with two companies – Michelin and Bridgestone. There are a couple of others who want to use that route.
Which sectors will you push for in the six-month window for customs duty review?
In electronics and leather, there are still some asks about rationalising and reducing duties on inputs and intermediate products.
Is a tightening of norms in tobacco being considered?
There are suggestions that there should be a crackdown on the branding and promotional campaigns done by tobacco companies including proxy advertising. We’ve just started the inter-ministerial consultation.
Has the process to grant visas to Chinese professionals in non-PLI companies been finalised?
For PLI scheme beneficiaries, the process has been simplified already. For non- beneficiaries in the PLI sector schemes, there are suggestions that we should extend a similar process to them. That is undergoing a consultation process.
Are there any other loopholes to be plugged in public procurement norms?
We’ve covered the ones we want. Whether we need to further increase the percentage (of minimum local content) is left to the ministries to decide. One or two ministries are ready to go higher but most want to stick to not more than 50%.