Worried over “excessive” outflow of foreign exchange as royalty and fees for technology transfer and use of brand names, the Government is considering to re-introduce restrictions on such payments by foreign companies to their parent entities.
“The excessive outgo should not be there. We are not saying that royalty will not go but we are looking at this issue as to how to address the sudden outgo of these funds. This needs a little bit of tampering,” Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma told the news agency in an interview. Regarding this, he has written a letter to Finance Minister P Chidambram.
“There has to be a fool proof reporting” of such funds, he added. The increase in outflow of these payments started after the government liberalised the FDI policy in 2009. It had removed the cap and permitted Indian companies to pay royalty to their technical collaborators without seeking prior government approval. The outflows on account of royalty and fee for technical services, taken together, are as high as about 16 per cent to 33 per cent of the foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows over the period 2009-10 and 2012-13. In the last fiscal, India had attracted FDI worth $22.42 billion.
Royalty is paid to a foreign collaborator for transfer of technology or the usage of brand. In his letter to Chidambaram, Sharma has said that given the current economic situation and a high quantum of outflows on this account, there is a need to take a view on whether the ceiling on royalty payments and fee for technical services should be re-introduced in the FDI policy to check the large outflows and also to prevent possible misuse of this window.
FDI, which is essential to bridge the widening CAD, declined by about 15 per cent to $12.6 billion (Rs 74,971 crore) during the April-October period in the current fiscal.