FM ASKS HEADS OF 23 CPSES TO SPEED UP CAPEX TO BOOST GROWTH

The combined capex target of these 23 CPSES for the year 2020-21 is Rs 1,65,510 crore

NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday held a meeting with CMDS of 23 CPSES and asked them to speed up their capital expenditure (capex) plans to boost economic growth.

The combined capex target of these 23 Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSES) for the year 2020-21 is Rs 1,65,510 crore.

The meeting was held through video conferencing with secretaries of Ministries of Petroleum, Power, Coal, Mines, and Department of Atomic Energy, and CMDS of 23 CPSES under the ministries. "The Finance Minister asked the secretaries to closely monitor the performance of CPSES in order to ensure capital expenditure to the tune of 50 per cent of capital outlay by Q2 2020-21 and make plan for it. She stated that unresolved issues should be flagged immediately to the DEA/DPE for immediate solution," the finance ministry said in a statement.

In FY 2019-20, the actual spending by the 23 CPSES stood at Rs 1,66,029 crore against the capex target of Rs 1,64,822 crore.

CPSES have a very important role in giving a push to the growth of the Indian economy, the finance minister said.

She encouraged CPSES to perform better to achieve targets and to ensure that the capital outlay provided to them for the year 2020-21 is spent properly and within time.

The finance minister said better performance by CPSES can help the economy in a big way to recover from the impact of COVID-19, the statement added. "The Ministries/cpses discussed constraints being faced by them due to COVID19, like problems of availability of manpower, delay in imports, delay in payments by DISCOMS on the dues of CPSES like NPCIL and NLC," it said. The meeting was held as part of the series of meetings the finance minister is having with various stakeholders to accelerate economic growth.