Karnataka sees 73% drop in investment realisation

Even as the Karnataka government claims that the state was the Number 1 destination in attracting investment proposals in the country in 2017, it has seen a huge drop in the realisation of those investments.

The state has seen a whopping 73.2% drop in the implementation of investment proposals between January and December 2017, at Rs 2,455 crore, compared with Rs 9,162 crore in the same period of 2016, according to data available with the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).

In terms of investment intentions, the state has received proposals amounting to Rs 1,52,118 crore in 2017, and stands ahead of combined proposals of Gujarat and Maharashtra put together, data analysed by DH shows.

Among the states which have seen massive fall in implementation of investment proposals, Karnataka stands at an unwanted fourth place, behind Himachal Pradesh (-100%), Bihar (-85.5%) and Odisha (-76.7%).

"The fall in investments might have happened, as we suspect that many industries would not have filed their Part-B documents with DIPP after putting in the actual investment," a senior Industries Department official told DH.

In 2016, the state had attracted proposals worth Rs 1,54,173 crore.

However, according to many experts, business-friendly sops offered by Andhra Pradesh and Telangana investors are diverting their investments from the state. "We are seeing some slippages to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana," a Bengaluru-based analyst said.

Although the state accounted for 38.5% of the investment proposals in the country for 2017, it accounted for only 3.4% of the actual flow of investments in the country during the year.

National slide

In what can be a major dent to the India-centric economic approach, the investments in the country have dropped by 29% in 2017, in value terms.

According to the DIPP, investment proposals implemented across the country have declined by 29%, while the proposals have dropped by 4.5% in 2017.

The country saw realisation of investments worth Rs 71,396 crore in 2017, compared with Rs 1,00,537 crore in 2016. Earlier, in 2015, the country had seen investments worth Rs 77,972 crore.

In terms of new proposals, the country saw the number declining to Rs 3,95,296 crore in 2017, compared with Rs 4,14,086 crore in 2016. In 2015, the proposals stood at Rs 3,11,031 crore.

Although in volume terms, the investment proposals implemented increased 8.8% from 525 in 2016, to 571 in 2017, the average ticket size of the investments declined by 34.7% on a year-on-year basis. While the average ticket size of investments in 2016 stood at Rs 191.5 crore, the same declined to Rs 125.04 crore in 2017.

Jharkhand has been over-performer in terms of attracting the investors, with 1,162.8% jump in implementation, and 878.3% in proposals.