1,330 foreign firms, subsidiaries have shut shop in last 3 yrs:Minister

As many as 1,330 foreign companies and subsidiaries of overseas firms have shut shop during the last three years, Parliament was informed on Friday.

In the same period, however, as many as 4,994 new foreign companies and subsidiaries of foreign companies got registered in India, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

There are 17,432 active foreign companies and subsidiaries of foreign companies operating in the country, he said.

"1,330 foreign companies and subsidiaries of foreign companies have closed during the past three years," he said.

He said that the closing of operations is a matter of private commercial business decision.

"It depends on a host of factors such as viability of operations, availability of resources, market size, infrastructure, political and macroeconomic climate as well as the decision of a particular business entity to operate in the country," Goyal added.

Meanwhile, replying to a question on trade gap, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Anupriya Patel said India's trade deficit with China has increased to USD 73.3 billion in 2021-22, as against USD 44 billion in 2020-21.

"Most of the goods imported from China are capital goods, intermediate goods and raw materials which are used for meeting the demand of fast expanding sectors like electronics, telecom and power in India," she said.

She added that India's dependence on imports in these categories is largely due to the gap between domestic supply and demand.