55 FDI proposals received till June this year: Goyal

Fiftyfive FDI proposals have been received till June this year, government said in the Rajya Sabha on Friday.

The number of FDI proposals received under Government approval route in the last three years are - 199 in 2016, 122 in 2017, and 117 in 2018, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said in a written reply.

He said a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) has been issued for processing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) proposals by Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).

"As per the SOP, 8 to 10 weeks' time has been fixed for the decision on the proposals, excluding the time taken by applicants in removing deficiencies in the proposals/supplying additional information as may be required by the competent authority. Further, to ensure timely disposal of FDI proposals, periodic review is undertaken by DPIIT with other stakeholder Ministries/Departments," he said.

Goyal also said that FDI inflows have been consistently rising over the years.

According to the reply, total FDI inflow in 2016-17 stood at 60.22 billion dollars, 60.97 billion dollars in 2017-18, 64.38 billion dollars in 2018-19.

In the current financial years, 6.95 billion dollars of FDI inflows have been received till April.

"To promote FDI, the Government has put in place an investor-friendly policy, wherein except for a small negative list, most sectors are open for 100% FDI under the automatic route. Further, the policy on FDI is reviewed on an ongoing basis, to ensure that India remains an attractive and investor-friendly destination," the Union Minister said in his reply.

"Changes are made in the policy after having consultations with stakeholders including apex industry chambers, associations, representatives of industries/groups and other organizations taking into consideration their views/comments. However, FDI is largely a matter of private business decisions. FDI inflows depend on a host of factors such as availability of natural resource, market size, infrastructure and general investment climate as well as macro-economic stability and investment decision of foreign investors," he added.