Government to review policy on domestically manufactured electronics goods

The government Monday said it has decided to review the policy for providing preferential market access (PMA) to domestically manufactured electronic goods, especially in the private sector.

The decision was taken at a meeting held Friday at the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and attended by the National Security Advisor, the Cabinet Secretary, the Principal Secretary to Prime Minister and officers of all ministries concerned.

"Concerns have been raised in many quarters on different aspects of the PMA Policy, particularly policy relating to procurement by the private sector for electronic products with security implications," said an official release.

"The entire policy on providing preference to domestically manufactured electronic goods will be revisited and reviewed. The overall policy on PMA will be recalibrated and submitted to the cabinet," it said.

"DeiTY (Department of Electronics and IT) will bring a final note to the cabinet on the revised policy within four weeks."

The PMA Policy has two aspects, one relating to government procurement and the other relating to private sector procurement.

Notifications giving the guidelines regarding PMA in government procurement for products covered by DeitY and Department of Telecommunications (DoT) have been issued to all ministries. The DeitY and DoT have notified six and 23 products, respectively.

The National Security Council Secretariat will provide a definition of "security" for usage in the context of security related issues concerning products, projects or sectors.