NEW DELHI, Apr 19: Sweeping changes are likely to made in the amended Defence Procurement Policy(DPP) which is going to be unveiled tomorrow with particular emphasis being given to make level playing field for indigenous private sector and more harsh penalty clauses being added to make the processes and adherence foolproof.
Apex decision making body in the Ministry, the Defence Acquisition Council headed by Defence Minister A K Antony will meet tomorrow and resume its discussion on DPP which remained inconclusive in the last review meeting held in the first week of April.
“Sweeping changes are expected in the DPP, making it more indigenous and private sector friendly with safeguards against misuse of the new processes becoming highway of foreign products making entry with ‘made in India’ stamps,” a source in MoD told Defence Express.
International Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) will be given additional incentives to collaborate with the private Indian entities active in the defence sector, he said.
Mr Antony has hinted during his course of reply to a debate on tainted VVIP chopper deal in Parliament last month that the DPP would be fine tuned further to accelerate the process of making India a strong manufacturing hub of the defence products and platforms.
“The manual will be made more leakage proof,” he had assured the House. The DAC, under his supervision has had exhaustive revision of the policy since then and tomorrow the remaining untouched portions of the manual are to be finalised.
The issue of FDI is unlikely to be touched upon and enough indications are that the cap of FDI will continue to be 26 per cent. The Commerce Ministry headed by Anand Sharma is pushing for raising the limit to 49 per cent but his efforts have always been stone walled by Mr Antony.
“We are happy with 26 per cent cap as our focus is on enlarging our manufacturing base. Other sectors, where 74 per cent FDI is being offered, like telecom, investment is not coming in manufacturing area. They(foreign vendors) are not much interested in making us robust in the core areas. We need their investment with our industry participation in a big way,” an official, closely associated with the DPP review process said.
Certain nut-bolts of offsets procedures are likely to be tightened and more safeguards to be incorporated to keep the middlemen and hidden hands away from the procurement process, he added.
(AGENCIES)
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