Private sector capex estimated to fall 16.5% to ₹9.55 lakh crore in FY27: Survey

Capital expenditure by the private sector on acquisition of new assets is estimated to decline by 16.5% to ₹9.55 lakh crore in 2026-27 , a government survey has said.

As per the survey released by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation, the provisional aggregated capital expenditure on acquisition of new assets in 2025–26 is estimated at ₹11.43 lakh crore.

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 (2026–27). Responses were sought from 7,486 enterprises - 5,795 enterprises in the census sector and 1,691 enterprises in sample sector.

Enterprises generally tend to adopt a conservative approach in reporting such estimates for a future year, it stated.

The actual capex incurred during 2024-25 was ₹173.5 crore per enterprise against an intended ₹180.2 crore (as reported in the CAPEX-2024 survey), resulting in an overall realisation ratio of 96.3%, it stated.

This indicates that the actual expenditure was broadly in line with the investment intentions at the aggregate level for the panel of enterprises, it pointed out.

As per the survey estimates, the strategy of investment for about 48.63% of enterprises during 2025–26 was focused on core assets, while 38.36% planned investments for value addition to existing assets.

Around 14.54% undertook investments in opportunistic assets, less than 4% followed debt-related strategies, and about 1.0% pursued strategies involving distressed assets or non-performing loans.

In addition, 20.15% of enterprises did not report any specific investment strategy from the listed options.

The survey indicated that during 2025–26, about 60.13% of enterprises in the private corporate sector undertook capital expenditure primarily with the objective of income generation, while 42.12% reported CAPEX for upgradation of existing capacity.

Around 7.2% of enterprises incurred capex with the objective of diversification, and about 17.64% reported other reasons not specifically captured in the survey.

The survey results indicate that internal accruals constitute the primary source of capex financing in the private corporate sector during 2025–26, accounting for 65.35% of the total investment.

Domestic debt is the second-largest source, contributing 23.25%, followed by equity raised within the country at 3.78%.

External sources play a relatively smaller role, with 1.04% of CAPEX financed through the FDI route and 2.38% through foreign debt, it stated.

The National Statistics Office (NSO) conducted the first such survey during November 2024 to January 2025 to collect information on the capital expenditure plans of enterprises in the private corporate sector.

In continuation of this initiative, the present round of the survey was conducted during October–December 2025.