98% FDI Coming via Automatic Route: Economic Affairs Secretary

New Delhi: The Finance Ministry on Saturday said 98 per cent of foreign direct investment (FDI) is coming into India through the automatic route and as a “positive sign” the number of applications being routed via the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval route has started declining.

The government, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said, is also making efforts to provide enabling environment for raising domestic investment.

“98 per cent FDI now comes thro (through) automatic route. Dwindling FIPB applications is a positive sign as we move towards greater ease of doing business,” Mr Das tweeted.

The NDA government has been liberalising the FDI regime and has brought a number of sector under the automatic route.

Investments in sectors that are not under the automatic route require FIPB approval.

FDI into the country increased 40 per cent to $29.44 billion during April-December of 2015-16. The foreign investment inflows were at $21.04 billion in the same period of previous fiscal year.

PTI