98% FDI coming via automatic route: DEA Secretary

New Delhi: Finance Ministry today said 98 percent of foreign direct investment is coming into India through the automatic route and as a "positive sign" the number of applications being routed via the FIPB approval route has started declining.

The government, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said, is also making efforts to provide enabling environment for raising domestic investment.

"98 percent FDI now comes thro (through) automatic route. Dwindling FIPB applications is a positive sign as we move towards greater ease of doing business," Das tweeted.

The NDA Government has been liberalising the FDI regime and has brought a number of sector under the automatic route.

Investments in sectors that are not under the automatic route require approval of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB).

Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country increased by 40 percent to USD 29.44 billion during April- December of 2015-16. The foreign investment inflows were at USD 21.04 billion in the same period of previous fiscal.