The government exempts private players from following the PMA policy

The government has exempted private players from following the preferential market access (PMA) policy, say news reports. Following the government?s decision, now only public sector enterprises are required to increase the local sourcing of telecom equipment from Indian manufacturers.

The decision came following an inter-ministerial meeting, which included representation from the Ministry of Commerce, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Department of Telecommunications and Information Technology along with the country?s deputy national security advisor.

The government revisited the PMA policy following protests from international trade lobbies and trade associations including the India-US Business Council. The representative bodies claimed that a blanket extension of the PMA rules to the private sector would be restrictive and lead to market distortions, in a market where the industry players rely heavily on imports to meet their requirements.

Earlier, with an objective of promoting domestic manufacturing in the country, the DoT had mandated that service providers should give preference to telecom products manufactured indigenously while procuring telecom equipment.