MoSPI's first-ever private capex survey to track investments in 10-15 key sectors

New Delhi: The first-ever private capital expenditure survey conducted by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) will capture spending in 10-15 top sectors, two people aware of the matter told Mint.

The survey will include capital expenditure plans of companies, which make up 70-80% of output in sectors such as infrastructure, consumer durables, FMCG, financial sectors, energy, capital goods producers, IT services and real estate, the first person mentioned above said.

Also read |  Govt expects even higher dividend of ₹20,000 cr from state-run banks in FY25

"Automatically, it's the bigger companies which will submit their capex plans, most of whom are listed. Being listed on exchanges though is not the criteria to carry out the survey, but the size of the company and its contribution to the sectors," the person mentioned above said.

"The survey results will have some degree of anonymity as the data will be presented sector-wise without revealing the names of the companies," the person added.

Paperless survey

The survey will be conducted paperless, scrutinized by artificial intelligence (AI) at the first level and followed up by human scrutiny.

AI will be used to scrutinize outliers and duplication of data.

The survey, beginning in October and completing in December, will reveal the spending plans of companies between FY22 and FY26, with the results being made public next February.

Last month, the Hindustan Times reported the MoSPI is planning to conduct a survey of private-sector capital investment going into the economy, which will look at capital spending by the private sector for the last three years and also put out estimates for the next two years for the first time.

Also read |  Capex mood picks up in Q2, but revival isn't broad-based

The Private Capex Survey will see a sample size of about 6,000-7,000 companies.

"We don't want to cover all the companies in each of the sectors, which will make the sample size too huge," the first person mentioned above said.

“So, only the biggest of the companies, in terms of their contribution to the sector, will be surveyed."

Private sector capital expenditure growth has been sluggish and limited to certain sectors since the pandemic leading to the government spending huge amounts, especially on infrastructure.

Steep rise

The government has been steeply increasing its capital expenditure plan every year since 2020-21.

It has allocated a record ₹11.11 trillion for 2024-25 for public capital expenditure, amounting to about 3.4% of the GDP.

"The attempt to carry out a Private Sector Capex will showcase the contribution of the private sector to the GDP," the person mentioned above said.

Also read |  Government capex to pick up: Finance ministry’s Economic Review for August

"One of the ways to determine future growth rate is to determine the current capital expenditure in top sectors depending on the gestation period of the projects," the person added.

A spokesperson of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation didn't respond to emailed queries.