On Saturday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the fourth set of measures to be taken under Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan. The measures announced for the day titled “New Horizons of Growth” focuses on bringing policy reforms to attract investment in the sectors of coal and minerals, aviation, power, space, defence, and atomic energy. Here are the highlights:
- To fast track investments efforts, an Empowered Group of Secretaries (EGoS) to be set up along with Project Development Cell (in each Ministry) to prepare investible projects and coordinate with investors and Central/ State Governments
- States to be ranked for Investment Attractiveness
- Incentive schemes for Promotion of New Champion Sectors will be launched in sectors such as Solar PV manufacturing; Advanced cell battery storage
Industrial Infrastructure
- Schemes to be implemented in States for Industrial Cluster Upgradation
- Industrial Information System with GIS mapping for availability of industrial land and land banks
- Industrial parks to be ranked
Coal
- Revenue sharing mechanism to replace regime of fixed ₹/tonne, now any party can bid for a coal block and sell in the open market
- Entry norms to be liberalized – 50 blocks to be offered immediately
- Introduction of commercial mining, private sector participation in exploration to be allowed
- Ease of doing business – Mining Plan to be shortened
- Exploration-cum-production regime for partially explored blocks, even partially explored blocks to be auctioned
- Infra development woth ₹50,000 crores to create diversified opportunities
- Coal Gasification / Liquefaction to be incentivised through revenue share, will aid in India shift towards gas-based economy thereby having lower environment impact
- Coal Bed Methane rights to be auctioned from Coal India Limited’s mines
Minerals
- Private investments in this sector to be enhanced
- Seamless composite exploration-cum-mining-cum-production regime to be introduced
- 500 mining blocks to be offered
- Joint Auction of Bauxite and Coal mineral blocks
- Distinction between captive and non-captive mines to be removed
- Ministry of Mines to develop Mineral Index for different minerals
- Stamp-duty rationalization
Defence
- FDI limit in defence manufacturing under automatic route to be raised to 79% from 49%
- Indigenisation of imported spares
- List of weapons/platforms for ban on import with year wise timelines to be notified
- Ordnance Factory Board to be corporatized to improve autonomy, accountability and efficiency in ordnance supplies
Civil Aviation
- Air space to be efficiently managed – Restrictions on utilisation of the Indian Air Space will be eased as currently only 60% of Indian airspace is freely available, set to benefit aviation sector by ₹1000 crore a year
- World class airports to be built through PPP – AAI has awarded 3 airports out of 6 for Operation and Maintenance through PPP, 6 more to be identified in round 2, round 3 will also see 6 more airports for investment by private players
- India to become global hub for Aircraft Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) – Tax regime for MRO eased, convergence between defence and civil MROs maintenance cost for airline to come down
Power
- Tariff policy to be reformed – DISCOM inefficiencies will not be allowed to burden consumers, load shedding to be penalized, DBT for subsidy, smart meters
- Progressive reduction in cross subsidies
- Generation and transmission project developers to be selected competitively
- Power Departments / Utilities, Power Distribution to be privatized in Union Territories
Social Infrastructure
- Government to enhance viability gap funding upto 30% each of total project cost
- ₹8100 crores allocated as total outlay for this sector
Space
- Private sector will be ‘co-traveller’ in India’s space journey
- ISRO facilities will be opened for use by private companies
- Level playing field to be created for private players
- Outer space travel, future projects for planetary exploration to be opened for private sector
- Liberal geo-spatial data policy for providing data for tech-entrepreneurs
Atomic Energy
- Research reactor to be built in PPP mode, startup ecosystem to be given a chance at the nuclear space through Technology Development cum Incubation Centres
- Promote welfare of humanity through affordable treatment for cancer and other diseases
- Irradiation technology for food preservation
Final set of measures as part of Atmanirbhar Bharat will be announced on May 17.