The Finance minister has been announcing in various tranches reforms and measures to build a Atmanirbar Bharat. In the first 3 parts, measures have been announced for the MSMEs, NBFCs, Agriculture and allied activities and reforms to ease compliance and strengthen occupational safety through labour reforms.
Today, to give life to Prime Minister’s vision, to Reform, Perform and Transform and to prepare for tough global competition, Policy Simplifications for many sectors to bring transparency has been announced. Specifically, the Finance minister announced reliefs and measure covering 8 sectors – COAL, Minerals, Defence production, Air space management, maintenance repair and overhaul, power distribution companies, space sector, and Atomic energy.
A highlight of the announcement is as under:
Policy Reforms to fast track investment:
- Fast track investment Clearance through Empowered Group of Secretaries (‘EGos’) will be done.
- Project Development cell in each Ministry will be formed to prepare for investible projects.
- Ranking of States on investment attractiveness to compete for new investments will be done.
- Incentive schemes for Promotion of New Champion Sectors will be launched in sectors such as Solar PV manufacturing, advance cell Battery storage.
Upgradation of Industrial Infrastructure:
- Availability of Industrial Land/ Land Banks, for promoting new investments will be made available on Industrial Information System (‘IIS’) with GIS Mapping.
- 3376 industrial parks/ estates/ SEZ in 5 lakh hectares will be mapped on IIS.
- All Industrial parks will be ranked in 2020-21.
COAL:
- India has the 3rd Largest Deposit of COAL. Despite that, COAL is still imported. Till date COAL has been Government Monopoly, and this has been relaxed.
- An exploration cum production regime for Partially explored blocks will be now allowed, in place of of fully explored coal block as done today.
- Commercial mining of coal will ensure more availability of coal. Therefore, Production earlier than scheduled will be incentivized through revenue share.
- Private sector participation in the coal sector will be done through introducing revenue sharing mechanism instead of regime of fixed Rupee/ tonne.
- Entry norms into the industry will be liberalised where 50 blocks will be offered immediately on upfront payment with a ceiling.
- COAL bed Methane extraction rights to be auctioned from CIL coal mines.
- COAL gasification/ liquefaction will be incentivised through rebate in revenue share.
Minerals
- Seamless composite Exploration cum production regime is being brought in. 500 mining blocks will be offered for open and transparent mechanism. Joint auction of Bauxite and Coal beds will be done.
- Distinction between captive and Non-captive mines will be removed. Sale of surplus and unused minerals by transfer of mining lease will be done.
- Ministry of mines is under process of developing index of minerals.
- Process of payment of stamp duty at the time of award of mining leases is being rationalised.
Defence production reform
- To encourage make in India for self reliance in Defence Production, a list of weapons and platforms for Ban on import with year wise timelines will be notified.
- Indigenisation of imported Spares will be done. This will help producer of defence equipment.
- To improve autonomy, accountability and efficiency in ordnance Supplied, Ordnance Factory Board will be corporatised, without privatising it. These corporate may later be listed, which allows ordinary indian citizen to invest in such factories.
- FDI limits in defence manufacturing sector under automatic route will be raised from 49% to 75%, subject to security Clearance.
- Time bound defence procurement process will be brought about by ushering Realistic Setting on General Staff qualitative requirements of Weapons and platforms.
Civil Aviation Industry
- Presently only 60% of the Air space is freely available. Restrictions on utilisation of Indian airspace will be eased so that civil flying becomes efficient. Measures will optimize utilisation of air space, reduce flight time, and fuel consumption .
- Another 6 more airports identified for investment on a PPP basis.
- India will be made into an MRO Hub – Maintenance, repair and overhaul Hub. Tax regime is being altered to incentive this sector. This will benefit not just civil aircrafts, but defence aircrafts as well.
Power Distribution Companies:
- Tariff policy laying out reforms on Consumer rights, progressive reduction in subsidies, and sustainability of the sector will be released.
- Power distribution in Union Territories will be privatised, which will lead to better service to consumer. This model can be emulated by other utilities across the country.
Social Infrastructure Projects:
Today social Infrastructure projects suffer from poor viability. 30% Viability gap funding will be done by Government, which was earlier at 20%, so urgent demand for such social infrastructure can be met.
Space
- India has benefited through ISRO, but indiviuals and start-ups have developed space related technologies.
- Level playing field for private companies in satellite, launches, and space services will be provided.
- Predictable policy and regulatory environment will be brought about.
- Future projects for planetary exploration, outer space travel etc to be open for private sector
- Liberal geo-spatial data policy to be brought about to provide remote-sensing data to tech-entrepreneurs.
Atomic Energy
- Research reactor in PPP model will be established for production of medical isotopes, for promoting welfare of humanity through affordable treatment of cancer and other illnesses.
- Establish facilities in PPP mode, to use irradiation technology for food preservation to improve shelf life of perishable crops like onions.
- Technology Development cum Incubation Centres will be set up for fostering synergy between research facilities and tech entrepreneurs.
