Home Ministry raises concerns over raising FDI limit in aviation, telecom, and defence

NEW DELHI: In what could impact the government's plan to lift foreign direct investment caps across sectors, the home ministry has raised security concerns over further opening up in telecom, civil aviation, space and information &broadcasting.

The ministry raised these concerns at a meeting called by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion to discuss the government's liberalisation plan based on the recommendations of the Arvind Mayaram panel.

"The ministry of home affairs has raised concerns on (raising FDI caps in) telecom, defence, civil aviation and space. Their concerns have been conveyed wherever they were raised to different departments, especially where security concerns are a must," said DIPP secretary Saurabh Chandra after the meeting.

The DIPP, the administrative department for the FDI policy, on Monday initiated formal consultations with all stakeholder - ministries and departments - the process that is likely to conclude by third week of July.

"A lot of discussion and going on and the final position will be firmed up by Friday," Chandra said and added that the telecom department will take up the FDI matter in the Telecom Commission on Tuesday and will apprise the DIPP. The DIPP will hold discussions on multi-brand retail, power and pharma.

Commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma separately met finance minister P Chidambaram on FDI liberalisation and measures needed to boost exports. "The finance minister and I have had a rather comprehensive discussion and reviewed the overall situation with particular regard to CAD, the market's progress and the FDI scenario. We have been attracting FDI even during the difficult years and we hope to continue to do that." Sharma told reporters.

After the interministerial discussions by July 5, the final report will be submitted to commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma and discussed at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.