Central Government in continuation of its endeavours to promote Ease of Doing Business in India has passed proposal for abolishing the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) and allowing concerned Administrative Ministries/Departments to process applications for FDI requiring government approval. Reduction of formalities and time gap in getting government approvals will make India more attractive destination for Foreign Investors and will result in more inflow of FDI.

Via Office Memorandum- F.No. 01/01/FC12017/FIPB dated 05.06.2017, FIPB Section, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance has circulated that the work relating to processing of applications for FDI and approval of the Government thereon under the extant FDI Policy and FEMA, shall now be handled by the concerned Administrative Ministries/Departments in consultation with the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), Ministry of Commerce, which will also issue the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for processing of applications and decision of the Government under the extant FDI policy.

The eleven notified sectors/activities requiring government approval with the concerned Administrative Ministry/ Department are listed below:

DIPP will continue to be the administrative ministry for following FDI proposals under government routes:

1. FDI proposals by Non Resident Indians (NRI)/ Export Oriented Unit’s (EOU’s).
2. Applications relating to issue of equity shares under the FDI policy for import of capital goods/machinery/equipment (excluding second-hand machinery).
3. Applications relating to issue of equity shares for pre-operative/pre-incorporation expenses (including payments of rent etc.).

Irrespective of the sector in which the investment is being made applications for foreign investment into a Core Investment Company or an Indian company engaged only in the activity of investing in the capital of other Indian Company/ies shall be processed by the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance.

Applications involving investments falling under automatic route from Countries of Concern, requiring security clearance as per the extant FEMA 20, FDI Policy and security guidelines, amended from time to time, should be processed by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Whereas cases pertaining to approval route sectors/activities requiring security clearance will be processed by the nodal Administrative Ministries/Departments in consultation with the Ministry of Home Affairs, as the case may be.

The format of Security Clearance form has been changed and is available on the portal. Users are required to upload the new form to get their applications processed.

Users can continue to file applications requiring Government approval on the existing FIPB portal i.e, www.fipb.gov.in, by following same process of registering themselves on portal and then filing application after login.

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ACS Archita Gupta

An Associate Member of Institute of Company Secretary of India (ICSI), having an experience of more than an year in managing Corporate Law Compliances with focus on Companies Act, FEMA, ECB, & Labour law Compliances. Presently engaged with LexComply.com, playing foremost role in the Content Enhancement besides managing the regulatory compliances of various clients through LexComply.