Govt to notify list of weapons banned for imports, will be purchased only from India

New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said that the government will notify a list of weapons for a ban on import with year-wise timelines. She said the move will make India more self-reliant in defence production.

“There will be indigenisation of imported spares,” she stated.

Foreign Direct Investment limit in defence manufacturing under automatic route has been raised from 49% to 74%, the finance minister said on Saturday.

Sitharaman said that there will a separate budget provisioning for domestic capital procurement. “This will help in reducing huge import bill,” she noted.

Concerning the airspace management sector, she said that restrictions on the utilisation of Indian air space will be eased so that civilian flying becomes more efficient.

“Will bring a total benefit of Rs 1,000 crores per year for the aviation sector,” the minister announced.

Sitharaman also added that India will soon become a global hub for aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO).

The tax regime for the MRO ecosystem has been rationalized. Aircraft component repairs and airframe maintenance to increase from Rs 800 crores to Rs 2000 crores in 3 years,” she said.

This came as part of the finance minister’s announcements on Saturday in eight sectors - coal, minerals defence production, airspace management, MROs power distribution companies, space sectors, atomic energy.

Sitharaman said that the fourth day of the announcements on the stimulus package will focus primarily on “structural reforms” in these sectors.

She said that over the days, along with her team, she has been announcing the various steps that the government wants to take to give stimulus to the economy and help various sectors.

“We have made several announcements and introduced many measures. We also made sure people don’t have to struggle to file taxes and have given boost to the MSMEs,” the finance minister said in her opening statement on Saturday.