The government failed to arrive at any consensus today on the issue of determining the extent of indirect foreign investment in any particular company. After about two hours of discussion on the issue, the group of ministers on foreign direct direct investment (FDI), chaired by external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, remained largely inconclusive about changing the formula for determining the ceiling on FDI in different sectors.

Emerging from the meeting, commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath told reporters here, “Because at the moment there are various press notes (on FDI rules) and various policy circulars, there is a lot of ambiguity in the procedure. We have looked at all streamlining procedures required because there are questions of indirect ownership and beneficial ownership and would like to streamline this so that there is a homogeneous FDI policy.”

According to sources, there were inter-ministerial differences on the proposal of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion that, if cleared, would have greater FDI in a host of sectors like telecom and insurance.

The GoM will resume discussions at a later date, said Nath. He added that at present, there are a lot of anomalies in the existing FDI policy. So, if a foreign institutional investor (FII) holds even 1 per cent in a company where FDI is not allowed, it is a violation of the rules.

Besides Mukherjee and Nath, Telecom Minister A Raja and Corporate Affairs Minister Prem Chand Gupta are members of the GoM.