Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in the country are increasing at a steady pace and stood at US$ 208.99 billion during April 2014 to December 2017, PTI reports one of the Union Minister as saying. Some of the main sectors that attracted highest inflows include construction, trading, computer hardware and software, automobile, services and telecom.

"A total FDI of USD 208.99 billion from April 2014 to December 2017 has been received," Minister of State for Commerce and Industry C R Chaudhary said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. In a different reply, the minister reported a decline in the number of functional or operative export-oriented units (EOU) from 2,239 in 2016-17 to 2,197 this far in 2017-18.

The pitfalls pertaining to the EOU scheme are to be identified by the committee constituted as per the recommendations of the Public Accounts Committee on February 6. Furthermore, a comparative study shall be undertaken to study the benefits provided to the SEZs and EOUs as to why the EOUs are being shifted to SEZ sector.

With Inputs From PTI