Investment Commission delivers

South African energy company Sasol Ltd is planning to invest up to $6 billion in India in the coal-to-liquid and gas-to-liquid conversion business.

The government is looking at the proposal keenly, and is identifying coal blocks for the company in the country. Sasol intends to invest $1 billion initially, and ramp up the investment in a progressive manner.

Stating this, Finance Minister P Chidambaram added that there were other major foreign investment proposals that the Ratan Tata-headed Investment Commission and the government were keen on promoting. One of these related to French cement major Lafarge. "We are trying to get Lafarge a mining lease," he said.

Chidambaram and commission members Ratan Tata, ICICI OneSource Chairman Ashok Ganguly, and HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh said some other big investment proposals were also being facilitated.

One of these was Intel's plan to set up a semi-conductor chip assembly and testing plant. The project could see investments of $400 million, but was stuck on account of fiscal incentives sought by the company.

"The commission has played a great part in motivating Intel to come to India. It has recommended a set of concessions for electronic hardware manufacturing. A policy is in the final stages, and will soon go to the Cabinet," Chidambaram added.

There were three other cases where companies were facing difficulties on account of inverted duty structures. The finance ministry was now looking at resolving these issues.