India negotiating bilateral investment treaties with different countries, FM during interim budget presentation

New Delhi: India is negotiating bilateral investment treaties with different countries intending to promote foreign inflows, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Thursday.

She said that foreign direct investment (FDI) doubled during 2014-23 to USD 596 billion compared to the inflow received during 2005-14. "For encouraging sustained foreign investment, we are negotiating bilateral investment treaties with our foreign partners, in the spirit of 'first develop India'," she said while presenting the interim Budget 2024-25.

India is negotiating this treaty with countries such as the UK. These investment treaties help in promoting and protecting investments in each other's countries. These pacts are important as India has earlier lost two international arbitration cases against British telecom giant Vodafone and Cairn Energy plc of the UK over the retrospective levy of taxes.

According to government data foreign direct investment (FDI) equity inflows in India declined 24 per cent to USD 20.48 billion in April-September 2023. The total FDI -- which includes equity inflows, reinvested earnings and other capital -- contracted 15.5 per cent to USD 32.9 billion during the period under review against USD 38.94 billion in April-June 2022. The top investor countries include Singapore, Mauritius, the US, the UK, and the UAE.

Computer software and hardware, trading, services, telecommunication, automobile, pharma and chemicals are some of the key sectors that attract FDI into India. An official had earlier said that hardening interest rates globally and worsening geopolitical situation impacted FDI inflows into India in 2022-23.