FM Sitharaman Asks Govt Companies To Achieve 75% Capex Target By Dec

On Monday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman exhorted large central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) to achieve 75 percent of their planned capital expenditure (Capex) target for 2020-21 by December, to support economic growth hit by the COVID-19 crisis.

An official statement said that the minister conveyed the message at a virtual meeting with secretaries of coal and petroleum & natural gas, along with the chairman and managing directors (CMDs) of 14 CPSEs belonging to these ministries.

This was the fourth in the ongoing series of meetings that the finance minister is having with various stakeholders to accelerate the economic growth amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

While reviewing the performance of CPSEs, Sitharaman said 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.

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 percent of the capital outlay by the end of the third quarter of 2020-21 and make appropriate plan for it.

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

In 2019-20, against the capex target of Rs 1,11,672 crore for these 14 CPSEs, the achievement was Rs 1,16,323 crore that is 104 percent, the statement said. It added that the capex target is pegged Rs 1,15,934 crore for these companies for the current financial year.

It further said the achievement in the first half of the current financial year stood at Rs 37,423 crore (32 percent of the target), while it was Rs 43,097 crore (39 percent) in the previous financial year.