Multinationals can take advantage of relaxed FDI norms: DIPP

The government today said multi-national giants like Apple can take advantage of the relaxed FDI norms in the single-brand retail sector.
Secretary of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Ramesh Abhishek said that as per the specific FDI policy announced in November last year, the local sourcing requirements could be relaxed for state-of-the-art and cutting-edge technology.
"It was not a policy for one individual company. The government works on transparent policies which are applicable to all who fit into that. So, whether it is Apple or Orange or whatever, whosoever fits into that policy will take advantage of it," Abhishek said here at a CII function on manufacturing.

There are a whole lot of many applications in the single-brand retail sector, the secretary said.
DIPP has already recommended exempting iPhone and iPad maker Apple from the mandatory 30 per cent local sourcing norms.
Chinese firms Xiaomi and LeEco have also submitted applications to open stores in the country.

Speaking at the same vent, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said the government does not work on individual cases.
"If you look at the policy regime, we have radically liberalised it across sectors, whether it was infrastructure or FDI regime," Kant said.
"Now, we are going to do this in social sector from education to health, creating world-class universities... We never work for individual specific case, that has never been done."

Kant also said land cost component for projects has increased to 40-42 per cent from 14-15 per cent, but "despite that, the government went ahead and acquired land".
There are a lot of projects in the pipeline and "you will see lots of action in coming years. 10-12 states should grow at a double-digit rate. Every state cannot be a manufacturing state," he said.
Talking about ease of doing business, Kant said the government wants to improve its ranking within top 50.
On GST, CII President Naushad Forbes called for quick implementation of the crucial tax reform.
"It is frustrating to be deprived of benefits of the transformative reform of GST. Introduction of GST could add Rs 8,000 to the income of the average Indian household each year which would progressively increase in future. Hence, the opportunity cost of not introducing GST was high," he explained.

CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee stressed on political maturity and convergence of political minds to get GST through.