पूँजी व्यय, संचालन व्यय और कार्यशील पूँजी

01Capital spend buys the box

Capital expenditure, or CAPEX, is money spent once on things that stay: site levelling, growing rooms, racks, cooling plant, boiler, chaff cutter and drums.

The MIDH Operational Guidelines 2025 set a cost norm of Rs 30 lakh for a mushroom production unit. Telangana's State Horticulture Mission prints the break-up behind that norm: two PUF panel growing rooms of 60 by 18 by 16 ft with a corridor at Rs 14,00,000, plus an environmental control system at Rs 16,00,000.

Those are the scheme's model figures, published by a state agency, not quotations for your site. Get your own quotations and compare the shape.

02Operating spend feeds the box

Operating expenditure, or OPEX, is what a cycle eats: straw or compost, spawn, casing soil, bags, fuel, electricity, labour, packing, transport and commission. Write OPEX per cycle, not per year. ICAR-DMR's own economics model for environment controlled rooms assumes six crops of 60 days per room per year. That is six separate OPEX events, and each one must be paid before its own sale arrives.

The MIDH low cost route, a 200 sq ft structure with a cost norm of Rs 2 lakh, still buys straw and spawn cycle by cycle.

03Working capital is a timing problem

Working capital is not a third kind of cost. It is money that must sit ready because spending comes before earning.

Count the days. ICAR-DMR states that one tonne of dry straw gives fresh oyster mushrooms in 45 to 60 days, while the same straw taken through button compost needs 80 to 100 days including compost preparation. Your first rupee arrives at the end of that stretch. Then add the buyer's credit period, often another week or two.

So the requirement is one full cycle of OPEX, plus the credit period, plus a reserve for one cycle going wrong.

04Where the scheme does not help

The MIDH implementation guidance is blunt. The assistance is a credit linked back ended subsidy, a bank loan is mandatory for a private applicant, and the money may be used only for buildings, infrastructure, machinery and equipment. It states there is no provision for recurring charges, staff or contingency costs.

Read that as a cash flow instruction. The scheme may reduce what the box finally costs you, after your claim is settled. It will not buy spawn in month two.

Working capital comes from your own funds or a separate bank limit. The state implementing agency decides how and when any subsidy part is released.