NEW DELHI: Indicating a slowdown in expansion plans of India Inc, the private sector capex by large firms is expected to fall nearly 17% next year, after a strong showing in 2025-26, reflecting a more cautious stance amid global uncertainty, a survey by statistics ministry released Monday showed. The second edition of the forward-looking survey by the National Statistics Office (NSO) estimated the aggregate private sector capex intentions at Rs 9.6 lakh crore in FY27, down from Rs 11.4 lakh crore in FY26. The survey, however, noted that companies tend to provide conservative projections for future spending, indicating that final spending may exceed current intentions. “It may be noted that out of the 5,366 operational enterprises that responded to the survey, 4,203 (about 78.3%) reported their capex investment plans for the next financial year. Enterprises generally tend to adopt a conservative approach in reporting such estimates for a future year,” NSO said in a statement. A like-to-like comparison of only 3,819 enterprises which provided complete information for all three years of the reference period (2024-25, 2025-26 & 2026-27), showed that private investment may not contract outright but stabilise in the next year, as they recorded an actual capex of Rs 6 lakh crore in FY25. For FY26, their investment is projected to rise slightly to Rs 6.1 lakh crore, a figure expected to remain largely unchanged with their spending intentions for FY27. The survey also noted a realisation ratio of around 96% in FY25, highlighting that corporate India has largely delivered on its investment commitments. Emerging sectors are also beginning to feature in the capex plans of corporate India, though investments are expected to slide in the upcoming year. Nearly 6.6% firms reported capex in green energy sources including solar, wind and biomass in FY25, which is expected to fall to 4.3% in FY26. Nearly 5.8% firms invested in robotic equipment in the manufacturing sector in the current financial year, which will slide down to 4.5% in FY27. The survey only covered manufacturing firms with annual turnover of or over Rs 400 crore, with the cut-off set at Rs 300 crore for trade enterprises and Rs 100 crore for other players.
