Govt gets Rs 1,770-cr investment proposal for telecom products

The government has received a Rs 1,770-crore investment proposal from a domestic company for the manufacturing of telecom products.

     
"Our policies have attracted investors. The aim of the government is to reduce dependence on imports. In total investment that we have received so far there is Rs 1,770 crore proposal from an Indian firm for manufacturing telecom products," DEITY Joint Secretary Ajay Kumar told PTI.

     
Without disclosing the name of the firm, Kumar said that the application is in process and is expected to be approved by inter-miniterial panel within a month.

     
The Department of Electronics and Information Technology under National Policy on Electronics 2012 and further strengthened by National Telecom Policy 2012 has so received investment proposal of Rs 4,595 crore for electronics manufacturing which includes telecom and IT products.

     
The proposal by the domestic company is the biggest among proposals that government has received so far for indigenous manufacturing, an industry source said.

     
"Government has come up with good policies but recent rethinking by it on Preferential Market Access Policy is enough to shake investor's confidence. Telecom sector has already seen dip in investments due to regulatory uncertainity," the source said.

     
The Cabinet in February last year approved the PMA policy seeking to give preference to domestically manufactured electronic products which have security implications and for government procurement also.

     
The PMO has put on hold the policy and said that it will "revisit and review" the entire policy on providing preference to domestically manufactured electronic goods.

     
According to regulator Trai, only 12-13% of all local products made with the aid of foreign vendors were used in the sector during 2009-10. However, purely India-made products formed just 3% of the market.

     
Out of the total investment proposal received for domestic manufacturing, government has cleared proposals worth Rs 961 crore which inlcudes invetsment from Bosch Electronics, Samsung and an Indian firm Sahasra Electronics.

     
Some of the other investments proposal inlcude Rs 450 crore for manufacturing of consumer electronics, Rs 310 crore LEDs and LED Products, Rs 45 crore for electronics components, Rs 610 crore automotive electronics, Rs 40 crore power electronics, Rs 210 crore strategic electronics and Rs 750 crore for semiconductor test and packaging.