Finance Minister holds 4th review meeting on CAPEX of Central Public Sector Enterprises

Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday held a video conference with secretaries of the Ministries of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Coal, along with the chairman cum managing directors of 14 Central Public Sector Entreprises (CPSE) belonging to these ministries, to review the capital expenditure (CAPEX) in this financial year.

Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday held a video conference with secretaries of the Ministries of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Coal, along with the chairman cum managing directors of 14 Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSE) belonging to these ministries, to review the capital expenditure (CAPEX) in this financial year.

The finance ministry said in a statement: "This was 4th in the ongoing series of meetings that the Finance Minister is having with various stakeholders to accelerate the economic growth in the background of COVID-19 pandemic."

"In FY 2019-20, against the CAPEX target of Rs. 1,11,672 crore for these 14 CPSEs, the achievement was Rs 1,16,323 crore i.e. 104 per cent. FY 2019-20, H1 achievement was Rs 43,097 crore (39 per cent) and achievement of FY 2020-21, H1 is Rs 37,423 crore (32 per cent). CAPEX target for 2020-21 is Rs 1,15,934 crore," it said.

While reviewing the performance of CPSEs, Sitharaman said CAPEX by CPSEs is a critical driver of economic growth and need to be scaled up for the FYs 2020-21 & 2021-22.

The finance minister asked the secretaries concerned to closely monitor the performance of CPSEs in order to ensure the capital expenditure to the tune of 75 per cent of the capital outlay by the end of Q3 of FY 2020-21 and make appropriate plan for it.

Sitharaman expounded that more co-ordinated efforts are required at the levels of secretary of ministries concerned and CMDs of CPSEs to achieve CAPEX targets.

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 for FY 2020-21 is spent properly and within time.

Sitharaman said better performance of CPSEs can help the economy in a big way to recover from the impact of COVID-19.

The CPSEs CAPEX review is carried out jointly by Department of Economic Affairs and Department of Public Enterprises, the statement added.

( With inputs from ANI )