India to begin alignment of FDI definition with IMF from Jan

NEW DELHI: India''s Foreign Direct Investment figures from January next year could increase sharply with Government slated to adopt a broader classification as per International Monetary Fund (IMF) standards.
"We will from January next year begin to include more figures in keeping with our efforts to align our FDI definition with the IMF," Industry Secretary V Govindarajan said here.
Speaking on the sidelines of the presentation of his report dealing with simplification of investment procedures, he said that though the entire exercise to align the definition could take time, the exercise would begin from January next year.
An internal group comprising representatives from the Reserve Bank of India and the Department of Industry had recently submitted its report to align FDI definition with the standard computation.
The group is also examining whether changes in some of the present laws would be required to bring India''s FDI in conformity to the IMF.
FDI definition in India is restricted mainly to hard cash unlike other countries which include non-cash such as technology and machinery in the FDI flows.
As per IMF definition, India''s FDI definition excludes reinvested earnings, subordinated debt, overseas commercial borrowings which are included in other country statistics.
There had been a 60 per cent increase in the FDI inflows during the first half of this calendar year despite an estimation of a 27 per cent decline in global FDI inflows this year.