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Finance Ministry on Monday asked Central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) under the administrative control of the Oil and Coal Ministries to ensure capital expenditure up to 75 per cent of their outlay by December-end.
These companies include ONGC, Indian Oil, GAIL, Coal India etc. For the current fiscal, the capex (capital expenditure) target of such 14 companies is nearly ₹1.15 lakh crore.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman along with her officials reviewed the capital expenditure plan of these 14 companies. The Oil Secretary and Coal Secretary were also present during the meeting. This was 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 the Covid-19 pandemic.
During FY20, against the capex target of ₹1.12 lakh crore, the actual expenditure was over ₹1.16 lakh crore, which is 104 per cent of the target. During the first half (April-September) of FY21, these companies spent over ₹37,000 crore, which is 32 per cent of the target. During the corresponding period of last fiscal, these companies used 39 per cent (over ₹43,000 crore) of the target.
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Critical for economic growth
Sitharaman said that capex by CPSEs is a critical driver of economic growth, and needs to be scaled up for the FY21 and FY22. She asked the Secretaries concerned 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 Q3, and make appropriate plans for it. She expounded that more coordinated efforts are required at the Secretary-level by the Ministries and CMDs of CPSEs concerned.
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 FY21 is spent properly and within time. She also said that better performance of CPSEs can help the economy in a big way to recover from the impact of Covid-19.
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