India's visa policy impedes foreign investment: industry lobby

India's visa procedures have been an impediment in attracting foreign investors, said a study by industry lobby Association of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) on Saturday.

Assocham has conducted a survey among over 100 Indian businessmen who have tie-ups with foreign companies for execution of projects here and 90 percent of them expressed the view that India has yet to emerge as a "hospitable country."

The industry survey reserved the most blame for Indian missions abroad.

"Officials accountable for issuance of visas in most of Indian missions overseas go on treating visa seekers with a behavior which is least friendly and often amounts to killing India's prospects of becoming a lead nation for absorption of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)," said Assocham.

India has recently cracked down on the number of business visa holders. The Home Ministry and the Ministry of External Affairs have been working to streamline the visa regime process for all countries.

Meanwhile, the Home Ministry had instructed all foreign nationals working here on a business visa to leave the country by Oct. 31.

The Assocham report said that the sectors most affected are telecommunications, power, oil and gas, and infrastructure sectors by the visa procedures.

"National security is, of course, the prime over-arching concern today. Subject to this singular constraint, India needs to reorient its visa regime around the world and polish its officials concerned in foreign missions, especially in countries which are our focus areas to impart the sense that India is a hospitable country," said the lobby group.

Assocham general secretary D.S. Rawat has written to Home Minister P. Chidambaram that Indian officials usually issue only a six-month single entry visa or delay its issuance. This is despite the fact that a business visa can be given for multiple entries over a period of five years.

"It has also been pointed out that if this matter has to be resolved to match and meet modern-day competitive business requirements, which cause considerable hardships to all concerned, clear instructions, including revised guidelines to all those who deal with this matter in India's missions abroad -- need to be formulated and executed," the industry lobby said.

Source:Xinhua