The Centre is looking to create special windows for “strategically important” investors so that big-ticket foreign direct investments (FDI) can be processed quicker.
The planned special window will serve strategically important investors such as pension funds and sovereign wealth funds investing Rs 3,000 crore in a single transaction, sources told the Business Standard.
Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.
The special window will provide investors with the government response within three days to fast-track the process. It will also act as a “point of contact” for investors and the concerned ministry or department, sources added. They said this is likely to be announced in the Union Budget 2021.
The window will also be available for investors to take up pending approvals, which will be tracked and resolved by the Department of Economic Affairs every 14 days, sources added.
FDI approvals take one to three months for approval depending on the sector of investment – the special window “will reduce the timeframe significantly,” a senior government official told the paper. Adding: The strategy was devised “for a more proactive approach to handhold investors and help them get approvals from abroad.”
“Apart from this, liberalising the FDI policy is being considered and an announcement will be made in due course,” he added.
The development comes while the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade’s (DPIIT) single window for domestic and foreign investors in manufacturing (not covering strategic investments), is also in the works.
The move should boost sovereign and pension fund investments in India, according to Rajesh Gandhi, partner, Deloitte India.