Capital expenditure by CPSEs needs to be scaled up for financial years 2020-21 and 2021-22: FM Nirmala Sitharaman

Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today said that capital expenditure (CAPEX) by Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) is a critical driver of economic growth and need to be scaled up for the Financial years 2020-21 and 2021-22.

She said this while addressing a Video Conference with Secretaries of the Ministries of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Ministry of Coal, along with the CMDs of 14 CPSEs belonging to these Ministries.

Ministry of Finance in a tweet said, "Finance Minister Smt. @nsitharaman held 4th meeting through VC with Secretaries, and CMDs of 14 CPSEs of @PetroleumMin, @CoalMinistry to review the capital expenditure in this financial year."

The Minister reviewed the capital expenditure of CPSEs in this financial year. Today was the fourth 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. CAPEX target for 2020-21 is Rs 1,15,934 crore.

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).

While reviewing the performance of CPSEs, the Finance Minister asked the concerned Secretaries 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 the third quarter of the financial year 2020-21 and make an appropriate plan for it. Mrs Sitharaman expounded that more co-ordinated efforts are required at the levels of Secretary of concerned Ministries 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.

The Minister said that 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 the Department of Economic Affairs and the Department of Public Enterprises.