Sitharaman urges secretaries of ministries to push expenditure on large important projects

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday held a virtual meeting with senior government officials to discuss the infrastructure roadmap ahead and requested the Secretaries of Ministries to push expenditure on large important projects to ensure that the "achievement is commensurate with timelines."

This was the fourth review meeting by Sitharaman with Ministries and Departments and second in the series of meetings scheduled on the infrastructure roadmap a-head after the presentation of Budget 21-22.

Sitharaman said that the budget for Financial Year 2021-22 provided a capital outlay of Rs 5.54 lakh crore, a sharp increase of 34.5 per cent over the budget estimate of 2020-21. "However, the efforts from the budgetary side to increase the capital expenditure have to be complemented by the Public Sector Enterprises," she added.

During the meeting, Capital Expenditure Plans of Ministries and their CPSEs, status of implementation of budget announcements and measures to expedite infrastructure investment were discussed.

The meeting was attended by Finance Secretary, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Secretary, Department of Public Enterprises, etc.

( With inputs from ANI )