With the objective of giving a boost to defence exports and enhance ease of doing business, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday approved issuance of two Open General Export Licences (OGELs) for export of certain parts and components and intra-company transfer of technology to select countries.
Giving details of theclearance, officials said the application for grant of OGEL will be considered by Department of Defence Production (DPP) on a case-to-case basis. The OGEL is a one-time export licence to be granted to a company for a specific period (two years initially).
The countries allowed under the OGELs are Belgium, France, Germany, Japan, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, UK, USA, Canada, Italy, Poland and Mexico. However, export of items to a ‘Special Economic Zone’ is not permitted.
For acquiring the licences, the applicant is mandatory to have Import-Export certificate, the Defence Ministry said adding “the quarterly and end of the year reports on all the transactions done under OGELs should be submitted to DPP for examination and post-export verification.”
The items permitted under OGEL includes components of ammunition and fuse setting device without energetic and explosive material; firing control and related alerting and warning equipment and related system; and body protective items. Complete aircraft or complete unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and any components specially designed or modified for UAVs are excluded under this licence.
The approval came following a demand by the exporters and the DPP held extensive consultations with various stakeholders and formulated this OGEL policy and submitted the proposal for Singh’s nod.
Officials also said the transfer of technology to the countries is subject to the condition that the export is an intra-company transfer from an Indian subsidiary (applicant exporter) to its foreign parent company and/or to subsidiaries of the foreign parent company.