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Even as a report of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) puts Odisha as the top puller of new investments in the country in 2012-13, the data available with the state government painted a completely different picture.
The RBI report estimated the new investment commitments to the state during last fiscal at Rs 53, 000 crore, which accounts for 27 per cent share of all-India investments.
But the state government data compiled by its investment promotion agency, Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation (Ipicol), pegs the figure at only Rs 13,454.54 crore.
However, sources said, if the period of consideration, the normal fiscal limit of April, 2012, to March, 2013, is stretched up to August, 2013, the total investment commitment in the state would come close to the RBI estimates.
In the first five months of the current fiscal, the state has attracted Rs 41,604 crore investment. Add this to Rs 13,454 crore commitment received in 2012-13, the total worth of investment proposals stands at Rs 55,058 crore.
“We do not know the basis of RBI estimates of new investment commitments. But our calculation is based on actual investment proposals received by the state for the period,” pointed out a senior official of the state industries department.
Interestingly, Odisha did not figure among the top five investment attracting states in the RBI report for the previous year before being catapulted to the top slot in 2012-13 surpassing such heavyweights as Maharashtra, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.
“What has further raised eyebrows is that Odisha’s share in new investment proposals at all India level has jumped sharply to 27 per cent in 2012-13 from a mere 6.3 percent in the previous year when no big investment commitment has actually come in during the period,” pointed out the state official.
Even a recent report of the Assocham - Unravelling the Investment Story of States — corroborates the downward trend of new investment proposals in Odisha.
According to the report, the cumulative investment proposed in the state stood at Rs 11,73,677 crore across 711 projects in sectors like manufacturing, mining, electricity, services, irrigation and real estate by the end of March 2013.
This was a meagre Rs 4,294 crore more than the figure recorded a year ago. However, the cumulative investment commitment in 713 projects by the end of March 2012 rose by Rs 50,555 crore compared to the previous year.
These numerical anomalies notwithstanding, the industries department official asserted that Odisha has been a favoured destination for the investors for past many years with the cumulative investment commitments received by the state standing at over Rs 14 lakh crore since the turn of the century. The state has signed 95 MoU for setting up of medium and large scale projects in the field of steel, aluminium, power, cement, port development, auto ancillaries and downstream industrial parks.
Out of this, cumulatively Rs 91,655.88 crore have been grounded in the steel sector alone which has received investment commitment of Rs 1.98 lakh crore. Similarly, independent power producers (IPPs) have invested around Rs 30,000 crore on their projects in Odisha.
Among the port developers, Dhamra Port Company Ltd (DPCL) has invested around Rs 3,500 crore.
In the aluminium sector, Vedanta Aluminium Ltd alone has invested around Rs 50,000 crore on two smelting units, power plant at Jharsuguda and an alumina refinery at Lanjigarh.
