Investment in Infrastructure

As per the White Paper on Infrastructure Financing brought out by CRISIL Ratings and ASSOCHAM India in December, 2015, it is estimated that the country would need ₹ 31 lakh crores investment in infrastructure during 2015-20. The Paper estimates that about 70 per cent o this will be required in the power, roads and urban infrastructure sectors. The Paper further estimates that over two-thirds of the investment (seventy per cent) would need to be funded through debt and thirty per cent would be through equity.

Apart from public investment, Government has taken steps to mobilize other sources of investment funds from various sources for development of basic infrastructure, including through the establishment of Infrastructure Debt Funds, Real Estate/Infrastructure Business Trusts (REITs/InvITs), relaxation in External Commercial Borrowing (ECB) and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) norms, mainstreaming of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), liberalization of lending norms by banks to infrastructure sector, relaxation of norms for Employees’ Provident Funds Organisation (EPFO)/pension funds investment in infrastructure sector, establishment of National Infrastructure Investment Fund (NIIF) etc.

This was stated by Shri Jayant Sinha, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha.