The Ministry of Industries and Production (MOIP) has resoluted to give Brownfield status to Dewaan Farooq Motors Ltd (DFML)/ Dewan Dachan Motors Ltd (DDML).This is done owing to special intervention of Minister for Industries and Production, Ghulam Murtaza Khan Jaoi, for unanimous decision taken by the Auto Industry Development Committee (AIDC).
It was reported by Business Recorders that Engineering Development Board (EDB) had altered minutes of AIDC to present special treatment to one of the automakers. The minutes of the AIDC meeting as shared by EDB had some controversies regarding the agenda four. Under Automotive Development Policy 2016-21 by Dewan Farooq Motors, the request for Brownfield Investment had been cleared by the house with not any alteration in policy.
Oddly, the decision stated “keeping in view the spirit of the existing policy for revival of closed down units, the AIDC unanimously supported the case of M/s Dewan Farooq Motors for appropriate changes in the ADP 2016-21 for availing benefits under the Brownfield category.”
According to sources, motive for the decision can be traced to one more agenda which recount to Al-Haj FAW”s demand for what was not probable in the present policy framework. The AIDC could not and did not hold up a change in the policy as it was strongly sensed that continuity in policy was more significant than temporary loss or profit for some players in the short run.
As per the minutes of AIDC meeting held on 29th November 2017, Dewan Farooq Motors Ltd (DFML)/ Dewan Dachan Motors Ltd (DDML) had come up to Ministry of Industries and Production (MoI&P) in its letter 14th July 2016 for reassessment of their request for grant of Brownfield status under ADP 2016-17.
Ministry of Industries and Production forwarded the request of DDML to Engineering Development Board (EDB) for reassessment in view of the reservations submitted by the company. Due to this policy announcement, the present OEMs protested that it didn’t offer any benefit to them if they introduced new variants.
