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In a proposal sent to the cabinet, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has suggested excluding telecom equipment, considered to be crucial for the country?s communications network, from the preferential market access (PMA) policy.
The suggestion follows after the government?s direction to DoT to revise the guidelines governing PMA policy. The PMA policy has been put on hold by the Prime Minister?s Office in view of the opposition from other countries for linking India?s telecom manufacturing policy with security concerns to get around the guidelines laid down by the World Trade Organisation, which prohibits any form of protectionism.
In its communication to the cabinet, DoT has stated that the PMA policy shall not be applied to electronic products having security implications and a ?separate framework? shall be developed for procurement of these products. However, all other provisions with respect to the procurement of telecom equipment and electronic goods by the government agencies shall remain unchanged.
Earlier, with an aim to promote local manufacturing of telecom equipment in the country and to reduce India?s dependence on imports, the DoT had issued the PMA policy. The policy guidelines stated that over a period of 10 years, all government departments would have to meet 50-100 per cent of their telecom equipment requirement from local manufacturing companies.
