The government is planning to ease the visa restrictions for Chinese technicians further. Need-based relaxations would be offered to all manufacturing units that are in the process of installing Chinese machinery. This would be broadly similar to the regime for firms setting up fresh capacities under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes, a senior official said.

“Most of the PLI visas have been taken care of. For general manufacturing enterprises, we are trying to create a better and more streamlined standard operating procedure and are hoping to roll it out after inter-ministerial consultations,” the official who did not wish to be named said.

The visas that will be granted under the new SOPs will be for around six months, which would be enough for installation of the machinery and training of workers. The new norms will relax the standard procedure for granting visas a bit. “It (SOP) is at the final stages,” the source added.

The SOP for faster visa clearances for Chinese technicians is already in place for companies that are setting up new manufacturing facilities under the PLI scheme. To get visas for Chinese technicians the companies under PLI have to route applications through the ministry that administers the scheme for their sector.

The relaxation for PLI companies was given as many had flagged the issue of delays in visas which hit operationalisation of their plants

The SOPs for visas for other manufacturing companies is currently being vetted by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). Other relevant ministries are quite positive about it after “sensitisation”, the official added.

Since the 2020 border stand-off, business ties with China have been downgraded. Investments and imports from China have been put under greater scrutiny. Even visa clearance for technicians and business persons is taking longer than usual. The Press Note 3 has put all investment from China on the government-approval route. With additional scrutiny, the Chinese companies have taken on Indian partners to expand their operations in India or bring in new investments.

While some relaxation might come on visas, the government is not looking at other relaxation on conditions on Chinese presence in the Indian economy including investments, the official said.

Media reports quoting electronics industry executives claim that 4,000-5,000 applications of Chinese technicians are awaiting government clearance which is hampering their expansion plans. These reports also said the restrictions have cost $ 15 billion in production loss in the past four years.

Industry has no option but to rely on Chinese technicians as it cannot get the experts in quality required from any other country and most of the machinery and components come from there. Even Taiwan, the world leader in electronics, has to rely on Chinese experts. Taiwanese electronics manufacturers in India are also seeking visas for the Chinese experts.