Finmin nudges central PSUS to speed up capex

NEWDELHI: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday prodded state-run companies to expedite capital expenditure in FY21 to help the Indian economy recover at a faster pace from the slowdown induced by the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the second such virtual meeting with secretaries of ministries of civil aviation, steel, chairman of railway board and chairman and managing directors of seven central public sector enterprises (CPSES) under these ministries, Sitharaman reviewed the progress in capex in this fiscal. “While mentioning the significant role of CPSES in giving a push to growth of the Indian economy, the finance minister encouraged them to perform better to achieve their targets and to ensure the capital outlay provided to them for fiscal 2021 is spent properly and within time,” a finance ministry statement said. The minister’s focus on public sector capex comes at a time when the Centre is facing a resource crunch and may have to cut its budgeted capex for FY21 due to increasing demand for resources to be spent on Covid-19related expenditure.