NIB on its way, to have powers of approval
Decks have been cleared for setting up of the National Investment Board (NIB) to expedite projects entailing investment of Rs 1,000 crore and above. To be given both monitoring and approval powers, the body could, however, be called the Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) if the Cabinet so prefers.
The Cabinet Secretariat was learnt to have received a Cabinet note on the proposed body from the finance ministry on Tuesday and it is likely to be taken up for consideration by the Union Cabinet shortly.
Official sources said that while the NIB would initially deal with infrastructure projects only, there is a proposal to expand its mandate to include manufacturing sector projects as well. The finance ministry has left it to the Cabinet to decide whether it should be called the NIB or CCI.
Regardless of the nomenclature, it would be a Cabinet committee headed by the Prime Minister and modelled on the lines of the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure. The ministry of environment & forests, which was the first to raise an alarm over the proposal to set up the NIB, and other ministries concerned would be part of the proposed body. It would be housed in either the Cabinet Secretariat or the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), sources said.
While the PMO gave its nod to an NIB last week, some complications had arisen with the Cabinet Secretariat arguing that giving it the powers to override decisions of other ministries would require many changes in the transaction of business rules of the government.
Be the first to comment.
