The Home Ministry eased the arms rules, including granting life time manufacturing license to firms and significantly reducing its fee, to boost the government’s “Make in India” campaign. The move will also help generate employment in the arms and ammunition manufacturing industry.
The rules are expected to encourage the manufacturing activity of world-class weapons to meet the requirements of central armed forces and police.
The rules will apply to licenses granted by the Ministry for small arms and ammunition and licenses granted by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), under powers delegated to them, for tanks and other armored fighting vehicles, defense aircrafts.
Under the new rules, the requirement for renewal of the license for manufacturing arms after every five years has been done away with. The license will now be valid for life-time of the licensee company.
The amended rules stipulated that the small arms and light weapons produced by a manufacturer should be sold to the central government or the state governments with the prior approval of the Home Ministry. This has been done away with.
Enhancement of capacity of up to 15 per cent of the quantity, approved under the license, will not require any further approval by the government. However the manufacturer will be required to give only prior intimation to the licensing authority in this regard.
The license fee has also been reduced significantly.
“Earlier, the license fee was Rs. 500 per firearm which added up to very large sums and was a deterrent to seeking manufacturing licenses. The license fee will now range from Rs. 5,000 to the maximum of Rs. 50,000.
“The fee for the manufacturing license shall be payable at the time of grant of license rather than at the time of application. Single manufacturing license will be allowed for a multi-unit facility within the same state or in different states within the country,” it added.
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