Capital budgeting refers to investment decisions involving long-term assets used for production. It involves planning the allocation of capital to maximize long-term profitability. Common techniques for analyzing capital budgeting proposals include payback period, net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), and modified internal rate of return (MIRR). Payback period is the simplest but weakest method, while NPV is preferred because it considers the time value of money and cash flows over the project's lifetime. IRR estimates the project's expected rate of return but has deficiencies that MIRR aims to overcome.

2. Capital budgeting means investment decisions involving fixed assets i.e.,
the long term assets used in production.
According to Lynch " Capital budgeting consists in planning development
of available capital for the purpose of maximizing the long term
profitability of the concern".
In the words of Charles T. Horngreen "Capital budgeting is a long
term planning for making and financing proposed capital outlays".
A firm must anticipate in advance when it needs to go in for new
machinery or to change the existing one. Otherwise, the firm may not
be in a position to take advantage of the demands prevalent in the
market.
Capital budgeting processes can be extremely time-consuming and
expensive if not properly designed.

3. A capital budgeting analysis conducts a test to see if the benefits (i.e.,
cash inflows) are large enough to repay the company for three things:
(1) the cost of the asset,
(2) the cost of financing the asset (e.g., interest, etc.), and
(3) a rate of return (called a risk premium) that compensates the company
for potential errors made when estimating cash flows that will occur in
the distant future.
Following are the most popular techniques for analyzing a capital budgeting
proposal:
1. Payback Period
2. Net Present Value
3. Internal Rate of Return
4. Modified Internal Rate of Return

4. Payback Period is the simplest method to use and is often employed as a
first step in the process of capital budgeting.
By definition, the Payback Period is the length of time it takes to
recover your investment.
For example, to recover Rs.3,00,000 at the rate of Rs.1,00,000 per
year would take 3 years. Companies that use this method will set some
arbitrary payback period for all capital budgeting projects, such as, a
rule that only projects with a payback period of 2.5 years or less will be
accepted. (At a payback period of 3 years in this example, the project
would be rejected.)
The capital project with shortest pay back period tops the list. To
accept or reject the proposed projects, they must be mutually exclusive.
The Payback Period isn't a very good method because it doesn't use the
time value of money principle, making it the weakest of the
methods. However, it is still used by a large number of companies.

5. Using a minimum rate of return known as the hurdle rate, net present value is
the present value of the cash inflows minus the present value of the cash
outflows. It is a technique that uses all of the cash flows into and out of a
project over the project's life.
A more common way of expressing this is to say that the net present value (NPV)
is the present value of the benefits (PVB) minus the present value of the costs
(PVC)
NPV = PVB - PVC
By using the hurdle rate as the discount rate, we are conducting a test to see if
the project is expected to earn our minimum desired rate of return. Here are
our decision rules:
Positive Benefits > Costs Yes, more than Accept
Zero Benefits = Costs Exactly equal to Indifferent
Negative Benefits < Costs No, less than Reject

6. The Internal Rate of Return (IRR) estimates a rate of return for the
project and compares this rate to the company's required rate of
return. It is the rate of return that an investor can expect to earn on
the investment.
According to surveys of businesses, the IRR method is actually the most
commonly used method for evaluating capital budgeting proposals.
If the internal rate of return is greater than the project's minimum
rate of return, we would tend to accept the project.
However, the IRR method does have certain deficiencies:
a) The calculation of the IRR, cannot be determined using a formula; it must be
determined using a trial-and-error technique.
b) The IRR assumes that the cash inflows are reinvested to earn the IRR, while the
NPV method assumes that the project's cash inflows are reinvested to earn the
hurdle rate. Of the two, the NPV's assumption is more realistic in most situations
since the IRR can be very high on some projects.
c) It is possible for the IRR to have more than one solution. If the cash flows
experience a sign change, the IRR method will have more than one solution. The
NPV method does not have this problem.

7. The Modified Internal Rate of Return (MIRR) is an attempt to overcome
the two deficiencies in the IRR method. The person conducting the
analysis can choose whatever rate he or she wants for investing the cash
inflows for the remainder of the project's life.
For example, if the analyst chooses to use the hurdle rate for
reinvestment purposes, the MIRR technique calculates the present value
of the cash outflows (i.e., the PVC), the future value of the cash
inflows (to the end of the project's life), and then solves for the
discount rate that will equate the PVC and the future value of the
benefits. In this way, the two problems mentioned previously are
overcome:
a) the cash inflows are assumed to be reinvested at a reasonable rate chosen by
the analyst, and
b) there is only one solution to the technique.