Finance secretary Narayan to head FIPB

NEW DELHI: The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) has been reconstituted with finance secretary S Narayan as its chairman. The change follows transfer of FIPB from the department of industrial policy & promotion to the finance ministry.
Till now, the secretary in the department of industrial policy & promotion was chairing the Board. The FIPB will now comprise a four-member core group of secretaries with the secretary in the department of economic affairs as the chairman.
Apart from being the finance secretary, Mr Narayan also heads the department of economic affairs.
The other three members of the FIPB will be the secretaries in the department of industrial policy and promotion; economic relations department of the external affairs ministry and the department of commerce.
To service the FIPB, a separate secretariat will be created and located in the department of economic affairs.
The staff which is at present dedicated to the FIPB work in the department of industrial policy and promotion will be transferred to the department of economic affairs in the finance ministry.
The secretariat will receive and process the applications and proposals for foreign investment and place them before the FIPB for consideration. Thereafter, it would submit the recommendations of the Board to the finance minister or the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, depending on the value of investment. Projects involving a total investment of Rs 600 crore or less would be considered by the finance minister while larger projects would go to the CCEA.