FM Sitharaman asks CPSEs to achieve 50% capex targets by September quarter

In a bid to boost growth of the Indian economy, Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday prodded the Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) to perform better to achieve their capital expenditure (capex) targets. Sitharaman said that better performance of CPSEs can help the economy in a big way to recover from the impact of COVID-19.

In a video conference with CMDs of 23 CPSEs, the FM reviewed the progress in capex in the current financial year 2020-21 and asked the state-owned entities to ensure that the capital outlay provided to them is spent properly and within time. This was the second review conducted by Sitharaman to accelerate the economic growth in the background of COVID-19 pandemic.

The Finance Minister asked the concerned authorities to closely monitor the performance of CPSEs in order to ensure capital expenditure of 50 per cent of capital outlay by the end of Q2 FY21 and make appropriate plans for it. She stated that unresolved issues should be flagged immediately for immediate action on them.

The Finance Minister said that she will hold such review meetings on the performance of the capex of CPSEs every month.

"While mentioning the significant role of CPSEs in giving a push to the growth of the Indian economy, the Finance Minister encouraged the CPSEs to perform better to achieve their targets and to ensure that the capital outlay provided to them for the financial year 2020-21 is spent properly and within time," said Sitharaman.

The meeting was attended by the secretaries of the ministries of civil aviation, steel and the chairman of the railway board (CRB), along with the heads of seven CPSEs belonging to these ministries. The combined capex target for these 7 CPSEs is Rs 24,663 crore for FY21. In FY20, they achieved 85 per cent or Rs 25,974 crore of the year's target capex of Rs 30,420 crore. During the April-June quarter of current fiscal, the achievement was Rs 3,557 crore, or 14 per cent, compared to Rs 3,878 crore (13 per cent) in the same period last year.

In the meeting, the CPSEs discussed constraints faced by them especially due to COVID-19 pandemic. The Finance Minister stated that the extraordinary situation requires extraordinary efforts and with collective efforts, we will not only perform better but also help the Indian economy to achieve better results.

By Chitranjan Kumar

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