Fri. Mar 29th, 2024
Nirmala Sitharaman. || Pic source:https://www.newindianexpress.com/Nirmala Sitharaman. || Pic source:https://www.newindianexpress.com/

The Finance Minister of India, Nirmala Sitharaman has urged the large Central public sector enterprises (CPSE) to meet 75 percent of their planned capital expenditure (Capex) target by December so that they support the COVID-19 hit economy and to take it out of the crisis.

The finance minister held meetings with the secretaries of petroleum and coal and natural gas agencies and also with the chairman and managing director (CMD) of 14 CPSEs that belongs to this ministry, as per the report. This is the fourth ongoing series of meeting that the national finance minister is having with several stakeholders of several sectors to fasten the growth of the economy in these troubled times.

The finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had also said that CAPEX by CPSEs is a critical driver of economic growth and needs to be scaled up for the financial year 2020-21 and 2021-22, as she reviewed the performances of the CPSE.

The finance minister also asked the secretaries of the CPSE to closely monitor their performances so that they can ensure the capital expenditure to the tune of 75 percent of the capital outlay by the end of the third quarter of 2020-21. The finance minister asked them to appropriately plan for this target.

To achieve the Capex target she said, at the levels of the secretary of concerned ministries and CMDs of CPSEs, more co-ordinated efforts are required. According to the official statement, for 2019-20, against the CAPEX target of ₹ 1,11,672 crore for these 14 CPSEs, the achievement was ₹ 1,16,323 crore that is 104 percent. For the current financial year, the CAPEX target is at ₹ 1,15,934 crore for these companies.

The statement also informed that the achievement in the first half of the current financial year stood at ₹ 37,423 crore, which is 32 percent of the target. In the previous financial year, it was ₹ 43,097 crore, which is 39 percent of the target.

The finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman also encouraged the CPSE to perform better to achieve their targets and ensure that the capital outlay for 2020-21 is spent properly and within time. She also added that CPSEs have a significant and large role in giving a push to the growth of the Indian economy. The finance minister also said that better performance from these CPSEs can help the country a lot by improving the condition of the economy by recovering it from the impact of COVID-19.

The statement also added that the Department of Economic Affairs and the Department of Public Enterprises jointly carried out the CPSE Capex review.

 

 

By Swastik Bhattacharjee

A student from Kolkata. Currently content creator at The Indian Wire.