By IANS,
New Delhi : A leading industry lobby here Wednesday called upon the government to remove restrictions on a foreign investor setting up two joint ventures in the same sector.
“The government must scrap Press Note-1,” Assocham (Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India) president Sajjan Jindal said.
Press Note-1 is a regulation that prevents foreign investors from signing a second joint venture in any one sector, without getting a no-objection certificate from the first partner.
It had been issued Jan 2005 to protect the interests of domestic players who ran the risk of direct competition from their foreign joint venture partners, better equipped with technology and capital.
Since then, Jindal said, Indian industry has matured, is expanding on foreign turf, and under such circumstances, “there is no need for such a law”.
He said Press Note-1 was a stumbling block to many foreign investment proposals and sent wrong signals to foreign investors.
“There are over 50 foreign investment proposals held up because of this,” Jindal said.
Scrapping it would send positive signals and boost overseas investments, he said.