Finance ministry on consensus building spree for NIB

With several ministries expressing concern over the proposed National Investment Board (NIB), the government is holding extensive inter-ministerial talks to do away with apprehensions on the proposal.

It has been envisaged the NIB, under the chairmanship of the prime minister, would expedite clearances to major infrastructure projects through a single-window system. Within two weeks of Finance Minister P Chidambaram proposing the NIB at the full Planning Commission meeting last month, the finance ministry had brought out a Cabinet note in this regard. A senior finance ministry official said talks between the ministries concerned were underway and the proposal might be taken up by the Cabinet next week or sometime next month.

However, when asked about the NIB proposal yesterday, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said, “I have not seen any such note, nor am I aware of it.”

The environment ministry, along with a few other ministries, has opposed the creation of such an entity. Various environment activists have also expressed concern over the proposal to give time-bound clearances to infrastructure projects.

Two crucial aspects on NIB remain unanswered—the role of various ministries with regard to specific clearances, and the role the NIB would play for foreign investment proposals. Currently, these decisions are under the purview of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board.

The finance ministry official said the NIB would have representatives from the Planning Commission, as well as all the ministries concerned.

He added there was no question of powers of a particular ministry being curtailed. “NIB would fast-track the clearances required at the central level in a time-bound manner,” he said.

NGO rejects NIB proposal
The Centre for Science and Environment, an environment watchdog, has strongly rebutted the finance ministry’s claim that green clearances are leading to inordinate delays in infrastructure projects.

In a statement on Saturday, it also rejected the proposal to set up an NIB, which it says will dismantle the regulatory systems for green clearances. It said “industry, government and regulatory agencies have been persistently talking about how environmental regulations have throttled the country’s growth and how the system of forest and environment clearances has forced India’s credit ratings to its nadir. And they have bitterly complained about how environmentalists were holding the country and its people to ransom.”