Spend Half of Annual Capital Expenditure Target by Q2 of Fiscal 2020-21, says Nirmala Sitharaman

Better performance of Central public sector enterprises can help the economy recover from Covid impact, says Finance Minister

Central public sector enterprises should quicken the pace of capital expenditure spend, according to Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. This is to be done while keeping in mind efforts to support the growth of the economy.

Sitharaman said this during a meeting with Secretaries of Ministries of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Power, Coal, Mines, and the Department of Atomic Energy. Chairman and Managing Directors of 23 Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) belonging to these Ministries also attended this meeting.

This meeting, held through video conference, was a part of the series of meetings that the Finance Minister is having with various stakeholders to accelerate economic growth, an official statement said.

In fiscal 2019-20, the capital expenditure (capex) target of the 23 CPSEs was ₹1,64,822 crore. The achievement was ₹1,66,029 crore. The capex target for fiscal 2020-21 is ₹1,65,510 crore.

The capex achievement by these CPSEs in the first quarter of fiscal 2020-21 stood at ₹20,202 crore. Capex in the comparable quarter of fiscal 2019-2020 was at ₹26,320 crore.

Sitharaman said that better performance of CPSEs can help the economy recover from the impact of Covid-19, the statement said.

She also asked the Secretaries to closely monitor the performance of CPSEs in order to ensure that half the capital expenditure is achieved by the second quarter of fiscal 2020-21. She stated that unresolved issues should be flagged immediately for immediate solution.

Constraints being faced due to Covid-19 like problems of availability of manpower, delay in imports, delay in payments by power distribution companies were also discussed at the meeting.