India drew $40.82 bn FDI till December

Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into the country stood at $40.82 billion till December in the last fiscal, parliament was informed on Friday.

Giving details about FDI investment in the last six years, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha told the Lok Sabha in a written reply that foreign investment in most of the sectors is already under automatic route.

"Government approval is required for only few sectors which are listed in the consolidated FDI policy," he said.

For 2014-15, FDI recorded was $44.29 billion, which was 23 percent higher than the previous fiscal.

In 2013-14, FDI inflows were up 5 percent at $36.05 billion. However, these dropped by 26 percent in 2012-13 to $34.30 billion, after having grown by 34 percent in 2011-12 to $46.56 billion.

The government said last week that FDI inflows touched a record level of $51 billion during the April-February period of 2015-16.

"We have had a record inflow of FDI in this country, more than $51 billion from April to February, and that is the highest-ever," Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion Secretary Ramesh Abhishek said here at an event hosted by industry chamber Ficci.

In reply to a separate question on Friday on allowing full fungibility, or substitutability, in foreign investments, Sinha said that "in order to provide simplicity to FDI policy and bring clarity on application of conditionalities and approval requirement across various sectors, different kinds of foreign investments have been made fungible under one composite cap".

He said the government has also introduced full fungibility of foreign investment in the private banking sector.

"Accordingly, different categories of institutional investors can now invest in private sector banks up to the sectoral limit of 74 percent, provided that there is no change of control and management," he added.

--IANS

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