NCR leads the race in FDIs during April-Nov'06

New Delhi, Dec 17 (UNI) The national capital region (NCR) tops the list for attracting FDI inflows close to Rs 28,000 crore between April-November 2006 and is likely to sustain the number one spot by end of March 31, 2007, an industry chamber has said.

The largest investment attracting sector has been electrical equipment, services sector, telecommunications, transportation industry followed by chemicals, food processing industries, drugs and pharmaceuticals, metallurgical industries, cement and gypsum products, according to an analysis done by Assocham.

Interestingly, the findings also reveal that out of 2,069 foreign companies incorporated in India, 1,280 have established their business operations in Delhi region alone.

In this too, Delhi ranks first which shows its significance as the national capital in the eyes of corporate overseas. Maharasthra and Karnataka are rated the second and third best states in which foreign companies have set up their places of business respectively numbering 361 and 159.

In a region-wise FDI break-up between April-November 2006 done by the chamber, it is observed that Maharashtra, Dadra and Nagar Havaeli, Daman and Diu turned out to be second best region in terms of FDI inflows between the eight months under consideration with about Rs 25,560 crore.

This was followed by Bangalore region which consists of Karnataka only in which the inflow of FDIs have been pegged at a little over Rs 8,050 crore.

Bihar, despite best of its efforts to attract MNCs operations and their investments remains the state in which out of the 2,069 foreign companies, only one could set up its business operations until today with total FDI inflows of Rs 1.25 crore between April-November 2006.

Incidentally only 15 offices of MNCs have been established in Gujarat, which is considered as an investment-friendly destination for foreign companies, as against West Bengal in which 62 MNCs chose to set up their business places.

However, in contrast, the fact speaks that while the Gujarat region attracted a little over Rs 4,500 crore of FDIs as against West Bengal in which the inflows are estimated at Rs 1,500 crore during the same period.

Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry together received FDIs to the tune of Rs 7,600 crore and thereby stood at fourth rank while Andhra Pradesh stood at the fifth number with FDIs of about Rs 4,675 crore between the same period.

At the seventh position as per Assocham's calculations were Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh in which the total FDIs remain at Rs 1,750 crore against the ninth ranking of Goa which attracted over Rs 9,00 crore of FDIs in the same period.

Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh remained the lowest attracting FDI destination in the period as Bihar and Jharkhand put together cornered Rs five crore rupees of FDIs against Rs 18 crore of Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal.

Orissa at the tenth spot was one state in which the total FDIs stood at Rs 500 crore during the period.

In Orissa, so far only five MNCs have set up their business places against 75 in Tamil Nadu, 14 in Uttar Pradesh, 57 in Haryana, 26 in Andhra Pradesh, one each in Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir, three in Madhya Pradesh, two in Rajasthan and one in Pondicherry.

The government received a revenue in terms of fee and filing of various documents as per stipulations of Companies Act, 1956 from MNCs that established their business places in various parts of the country to the tune of Rs 2.63 crore in 2003-04 which shot up to Rs 3.41 crore in 2004-05.

However, in 2005-06, the revenue earned by the government from MNCs on account of fee and filing of various documents rose to Rs 3.56 crore.

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