NEW DELHI, May 10 (ANI) — India’s private capital expenditure surged 67% to Rs 7.7 lakh crore in September 2025 from Rs 4.6 lakh crore a year earlier, marking “the most decisive evidence yet of a powerful and broad-based revival in the country’s investment cycle,” the Confederation of Indian Industry said Sunday.
In a press release, the industry body unveiled a five-point action agenda aimed at supporting the economy through the ongoing West Asia crisis and beyond.
CII’s analysis of nearly 1,200 companies from the CMIE Prowess database showed manufacturing led the capex expansion, accounting for Rs 3.8 lakh crore, or nearly half of total private investment, with metals, automobiles, and chemicals at the forefront.
The services sector contributed Rs 3.1 lakh crore, approximately 40% of the total, driven by trading, communications, and IT/ITeS.
“The 67% jump in private capex to Rs 7.7 lakh crore is, by some distance, the most important signal yet that India’s investment cycle has decisively turned,” said Chandrajit Banerjee, director general of the Confederation of Indian Industry.
Banerjee noted that capacity utilization rose to 75.6% in the third quarter of FY26 from 74.3% in the previous quarter, while new order books grew 10.3% year over year. Bank credit growth averaged nearly 14% during the second half of FY26, compared with around 10% in the first half.
CII’s five-point agenda includes a phased rollback of the Rs 10-per-liter central excise cut on petrol and diesel over six to nine months as crude oil prices stabilize.
“A calibrated phased restoration of the fuel excise will progressively relieve the exchequer of a very substantial burden without disrupting consumer sentiment, and industry is prepared to absorb a meaningful share of input cost pressures within its own margins,” Banerjee said.
The second proposal is a voluntary industry energy conservation compact, under which member companies would commit to reducing fuel and power consumption by 3% to 5% over the next two quarters.
“Every barrel saved at the factory gate is a barrel less the country has to import,” he added.
CII also proposed a 45-day MSME payment guarantee backed by TReDS and supply-chain financing to ease working capital pressure on small businesses.
Additional recommendations include supply-chain ringfencing through greater import substitution, diversified sourcing, and increased domestic value addition in components, specialty chemicals, and capital goods.
The organization also called for front-loading FY27 investments in manufacturing, energy transition, and digital infrastructure, along with voluntary price restraint and expanded internship intake under PMIS.
Banerjee credited the Indian government with creating an enabling business environment through sustained public capex, fiscal discipline, tax modernization, production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes, and free trade agreements covering nearly 70% of global GDP.
“Industry’s task now is to convert this enabling environment into committed capacity, jobs, exports, and value addition at scale,” he said.
CII expects India’s real GDP growth to exceed 7.6% in FY26, with exports reaching a record USD 863 billion and foreign exchange reserves remaining above USD 700 billion. (ANI)
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