The Reserve Bank of India said on Monday that it has expanded the list of items to be included under foreign direct investments.

"In future, reinvested earnings and equity capital of unincorporated bodies would be included in FDI data on an annual basis as these data are culled from the balance sheets of the FDI companies," the central bank said in a statement.

Under the new formula, the RBI said FDI for the year to March 2003 was $4.660 billion as against $2.574 billion published earlier. It also raised the FDI for 2001-02 to $6.131 billion from $3.905 billion.

The RBI also hiked FDI for the year to March 2001 to $4.029 billion from $2.342 billion.

The central bank said the composition of the balance of payments would change after the inclusion of the items although it would not alter the balance of payment data for the past three financial years.

As a result of these changes, India's current account surplus in the year ended March 2002 would decline to $782 million from $1.4 billion, the central bank said.