Environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan who wrote to the Prime Minister opposing the setting up of a National Investment Board (NIB) citing its alleged potential to usurp her ministry?s discretionary powers, has found little support from infrastructure ministries.
According to sources, ministries of power, roads and transport, shipping and railways have supported NIB which, they are convinced, would help revive investments.
Headed by the Prime Minister, the board will ensure faster clearances for projects above R1,000 crore by ensuring that ministries responsible for giving clearances do so in a time-bound manner. Delays in environmental and foreign clearances are believed to be the prime reason for the investment pipeline getting choked up.
The Prime Minister?s Office and finance ministry, the proponents of the NHB, reckon that restoring the investment rate to 37-38% of GDP is crucial to reversing the economic slowdown.
?Setting up this board is justified as it will benefit large investors,? said power secretary P Uma Shankar. A road and highways ministry official also said the new mechanism will help as it would be chaired by the Prime Minister, making decision-taking easier.
Natarajan?s ministry had raised concerns on the very idea of such a board being made as it seeks to transfer the decision-making authority of the environment minister to the NIB.
In a five-page letter to the PM, Natarajan had said: ?The current proposal is completely unacceptable as it will decimate the role of individual ministries in taking responsible decisions. The proposal assumes that (non-availability of) environment and forest clearances are the key reason for the delay in infrastructure projects and therefore, seeks to overrule the executive and decision-making powers of the ministry to speed up the process.?
This is not the first time the ministry has been isolated by other ministries. Last year, Natarajan?s predecessor Jairam Ramesh was a loner in the cabinet as he dubbed the Planing Commission?s aim to add 100,000 MW to India?s power generation capacity of around 165,000 MW as ?ecologically unsustainable?, besides suggesting the Plan panel must aim for less than the targeted 7% annual rate of growth of generation.
Natarajan had also sought to know who would inform the Parliament if any decision by the minister was overruled by the NIB.
A top finance ministry official said the proposal on NIB did not have resistance from any infrastructure sector ministries and that the ministry would soon move a note on it for cabinet approval. ?The NIB will provide more certainty to projects. It could tell investors whether a project could get requisite approvals in a time bound manner or not,? said the official.