Push capital expenditure to boost investment in economy: Jaitley

New Delhi : The Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday reviewed capital expenditure programme and status of dividend distribution of central public sector undertakings and authorities.

Finance Minister, while addressing the secretaries of concerned ministries and CMDs of major Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs), stressed that the CPSEs may not only complete their budgeted capital expenditure but should also look to aggressively push capital expenditure in the interest of boosting investment in Indian economy.

Secretaries and senior officers from the 10 ministries and the CMDs of the CPSUs apprised the Finance Minister that their capital expenditure programme for the current year are completely on track for achieving the capital expenditure of Rs. 3.85 lakh crore budgeted in 2017-18.

Some PSUs informed that they were planning to increase their capital expenditure programme, which in the aggregate, might be of the order of additional Rs. 25,000 crore.

Jaitley, while appreciating the commitments of the Ministries and CPSUs, assured that the Government would make available adequate resources but no slackness under any circumstances would be acceptable.

He also indicated that the capital expenditure programme would again be reviewed at the end of November or early December.

In the discussions for raising capital investments, it also came up to attention that most PSUs have very low or no debt on their balance sheet which is reflected in their low debt to equity ratios.

CPSEs were, therefore, asked to raise more debt and not to rely entirely on cash and free reserves for finding new investments and capital expenditure.

The CPSEs which have free reserves and surplus cash were asked to consider declaring liberal dividends so as to promote more productive use of such resources for financing much needed physical and social infrastructure