Tribune News Service
New Delhi, April 4
Foreign direct investment inflows into India have remained unabated before and during Covid and India remains the highest FDI receiver, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in Lok Sabha on Monday.
She was responding to concerns of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who earlier flagged the withdrawal of foreign institutional investors from India for the sixth straight month and asked her what the government was doing to arrest the decline.
“Investments will have to be gauged not just by looking at Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) and Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) which by their very nature depend on the interest rates and keep fluctuating. I am sure the MP who has held positions abroad will understand that FIIs and FPIs can be very tempted by interest rates elsewhere and prospects anywhere else. What is to be looked at with fairness and objectivity is the inflow of FDIs which is unabated and India is the highest receiver since before Covid. It continues significantly during Covid and subsequently also. It is that which indicates if the money coming in is staying invested thereby creating jobs and prospects for us and not by indicating only FIIs and FPIs,” Sitharaman said.
She said the FIIS and FPIs may come and go but today the Indian retail investors have proven that even if they come and go, any shock that may come is taken care of due to the shock-absorbing capacity the Indian retailer has brought into the Indian market.
“We as a house should stand up and appreciate the Indian retailer who has invested a lot of confidence in the stock market today in India,” the FM said.
Earlier, she took on TMC member Saugata Roy for interrupting her reply and asked “Why this temptation of having a running commentary? Even a learned MP remembers to obstruct the minister when she gives an answer. I hope he seeks clarification after I have spoken rather than have small-time satisfaction of interrupting me,” Nirmala said.
Tharoor earlier said overseas investors had pulled out Rs 1,14,856 crore from the Indian markets in the current year so far and FPIs had sold domestic equities worth Rs 48,261 crore.
“For the sixth straight month, foreign FIIs have withdrawn from their positions in the Indian equity market, a trend which may be exacerbated by the US interest rate hike and the commodity price hike, particularly of crude oil. Would the minister explain the worrying trend of steadily declining investment by foreign portfolio investors in the country?” Tharoor had asked, prompting a detailed reply by Sitharaman.
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