The forthcoming Budget is expected to lay the roadmap for further liberalising the FDI regime enhancing sectoral caps on certain sectors including civil aviation, insurance, banking and the small scale industry.
The Group of Ministers on foreign direct investment, which was scheduled to meet on Friday to consider the recommendations of the N K Singh committee report on FDI was deferred but official sources said the Budget could still contain announcement related to it.
The GoM meeting was deferred as four of the six ministers of the group were on tour, a finance ministry spokesperson said.
The External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha is in Moscow, Commerce and Industry Minister Arun Jaitley is electioneering in Himachal Pradesh, Power Minister Anant Geethe is away in Talcher and SSI Minister C P Thakur is in Patna.
Besides, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, who heads the GoM on FDI, the group includes Divestment Minister Arun Shourie.
The proposal is to enhance the investment limit in telecom from the present level of 49 per cent to 74 per cent but this would require legal vetting as the government would like a Indian partner to retain management control.
In the case of SSI, the proposal is to hike the limit to 49 per cent from 24 per cent but with a condition that it should be routed through Foreign Investment Promotion Board, now under the control of the finance ministry.
