No FDI in defence, ports, coal in Apr-dec period: Govt

NEW DELHI: As many as five sectors including defence, ports and coal have failed to attract any foreign direct investments during the Aprildecember period of the current fiscal, Parliament was informed on Monday.

The other two segments which were not able to attract the foreign inflows are - photographic raw film & paper and coir, according to the data shared by Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

Barring defence industries, the other four sectors had not received any FDI in 2015-16 either.

Last year, the government relaxed FDI norms in several sectors including defence. India imports 70 per cent of its military hardware from different countries.

As per the current policy, foreign investment beyond 49 per cent has been permitted in the defence sector through the approval route in cases resulting in access to modern technology in the country or for other reasons.

However, the sectors which have attracted maximum FDI in the April-december period of this fiscal include services ($7.5 billion), trading ($2 billion), metallurgical industries ($1.25 billion), electrical equipment ($2 billion), telecommunications ($5.54 billion) and computer hardware & software ($1.81 billion).

During the 9-month period of 2016-17, India attracted a total of $35.84 billion in foreign inflows. NEW DELHI: A study has been carried out by a consultancy firm for the revival plan of loss-making trading firm PEC, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said today. PEC Ltd has made losses during the last two financial years, she said.

As per memorandum of understanding signed by PEC with the Department of Commerce for 2015-16, the minister said, “PEC has got a study conducted by a professional consultancy firm for preparation of revival plan” as per the guidelines of the Department of Public Enterprises.

Out of six central public sector undertakings of the ministry, STC Ltd and PEC Ltd are making losses.

STC filed a winding petition in the High Court of Karnataka in 2013, which is pending for disposal.

Replying to a separate question, she said so far 16 rounds of negotiations were held for the free trade agreement between India and European Union. The negotiations started in 2007 and after 16 rounds, the last being in 2013, “EU withdrew from the negotiations due to some outstanding issues,” Sitharaman said. After that, both the sides held four rounds of stocktaking meeting in order to proceed with the talks.

In a separate reply, she informed the Lok Sabha that India has so far initiated 203 anti-dumping and two countervailing (anti-subsidy) investigations involving China since January 1994. NEW DELHI: India has initiated a probe against cheap imports of a chemical, used in paint and pharma industry, from China and Turkey as it has found sufficient evidence of dumping.

Imposition of the duty would help in guarding the domestic players from cheap imports.

Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers and Balaji Amines have jointly filed the application before the Directorate General of Anti-dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD) for initiation of the investigation and imposition of the duty on imports of ‘Dimethylacetamide’.

The DGAD has found “sufficient evidence of dumping” of the chemical from these two countries.

“The authority initiates anti-dumping investigations into the existence, degree and effect of alleged dumping,” DGAD said in a notification.

The period of investigation is April 2015 to September 2016 (18 months).

Countries initiate anti-dumping probes to determine if the domestic industry has been hurt by a surge in below-cost imports. As a countermeasure, they impose duties under the multilateral WTO regime.

Anti-dumping measures are taken to ensure fair trade and provide a level-playing field to the domestic industry. They are not a measure to restrict imports or cause an unjustified increase in cost of products.

Unlike the safeguard duty, which is levied in a uniform way, anti-dumping duty varies from company to company and country to country.

India has so far initiated 203 anti-dumping and two countervailing (anti-subsidy) investigations involving China since January 1994.