To set up shop in India, Swedish furniture maker IKEA may have to wait longer than it had anticipated.Before sending the company's proposal to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) in the finance ministry, the government wants to examine it further, it is learnt.
The agenda for the next FIPB meeting, scheduled for January 18, does not mention IKEA's application. However, at times, additional items are listed for FIPB meetings even a day before the meeting.
After the last FIPB meeting on December 31, finance ministry officials had said the IKEA proposal would be considered in the next meeting.
Though there were indications the government may set up an inter-ministerial committee to examine IKEA's revised application, Saurabh Chandra, secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), told Business Standard, "No, not to my knowledge."
On why the FIPB agenda didn't include IKEA's proposal, Chandra said, "That's a call taken by the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA)."
He added DIPP had already commented on the issue. DIPP is the administrative department for retail trading.
The government wants to go the extra mile to prevent any deviation from policy, said an official close to the development.
Against the backdrop of several probes by the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Central Bureau of Investigation, government officials are particular about maintaining transparency in their affairs, said a bureaucrat.
"The mood is such that nobody wants to come under scrutiny later," he added.
At its meeting on November 20, FIPB had given a conditional approval to IKEA to invest Rs 4,500 crore (Rs 45 billion)