SME Times News Bureau | 09 Jul, 2013
The government Monday said it has decided to review the
policy for providing preferential market access (PMA) to domestically
manufactured electronic goods, especially in the private sector.
The decision was taken at a meeting held Friday at the Prime Minister's Office
(PMO) and attended by the National Security Advisor, the Cabinet Secretary, the
Principal Secretary to Prime Minister and officers of all ministries concerned.
âConcerns have been raised in many quarters on different aspects of the PMA
Policy, particularly policy relating to procurement by the private sector for
electronic products with security implications,â said an official release.
âThe entire policy on providing preference to domestically manufactured electronic
goods will be revisited and reviewed. The overall policy on PMA will be
recalibrated and submitted to the cabinet," it said.
âDeiTY (Department of Electronics and IT) will bring a final note to the
cabinet on the revised policy within four weeks.â
The PMA Policy has two aspects, one relating to government procurement and the
other relating to private sector procurement.
Notifications giving the guidelines regarding PMA in government procurement for
products covered by DeitY and Department of Telecommunications (DoT) have been
issued to all ministries. The DeitY and DoT have notified six and 23 products,
respectively.
The National Security Council Secretariat will provide a definition of
"security" for usage in the context of security related issues
concerning products, projects or sectors.