India Inc’s investment plans took a severe beating when the Covid pandemic raged across the country in 2020-21 with the number of new projects sanctioned dwindling and projects already in the pipeline also slowing down.
Data on phasing plans for 2021-22 relating to projects in the pipeline point to persisting near-term risks to the investment outlook, the Reserve Bank of India said in a report. In all, banks and financial institutions sanctioned only 220 project proposals of the private companies during 2020-21, a record low in the recent years. The total cost of projects sanctioned too declined sharply to Rs 75,558 crore in 2020-21 from Rs 1,75,830 crore in 2019-20, the RBI said.
Altogether, investment plans of 576 projects were made during 2020-21 aggregating to Rs 116,603 crore as against 827 projects with investment intentions totalling Rs 271,374 crore in 2019-20. As many as 344 companies raised an amount of Rs 40,382 crore through ECBs and FCCBs and did not avail of any financing from the banks and FIs. Further, 12 companies did not avail of any bank finance or ECBs and FCCBs but raised Rs 663 crore for their capex needs through domestic equity issues.