7 PSUs under these ministries have spent 20% of their capex target so far

New Delhi: Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman held a video conference with the Secretaries of the Ministries of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, Housing and Urban Affairs, Defence and Department of Telecommunications along with the CMDs of seven Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) belonging to these Ministries, to review the capital expenditure (CAPEX) in the current Financial Year (FY'2020-19). This was the third in the ongoing series of meetings that the Finance Minister is having with various stakeholders to accelerate the economic growth in the background of Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The combined CAPEX target for FY2020-21 for these seven PSUs is Rs 1,24,825 crore. In FY2019-20, against the CAPEX target of Rs 1,29,821 crore for the seven PSUs, the achievement was Rs 1,14,730 crore, i.e. 88.37 percent. During Q1 of FY2019-20, the capex expenditure stood at Rs 20,172 crore (15.53 percent) and expenditure up-to July 2020 (FY2020-21) was Rs 24,933 crore (20 percent).

Also Read: 7 PSUs under MoCA, Steel Ministry & Railways spent Rs 3,557 cr on CAPEX in Q1

The Finance Minister asked the concerned Secretaries to closely monitor the performance of CPSEs in order to ensure capital expenditure to the tune of 50 percent of capital outlay by the end of Q2 of FY'2020-21 and make an appropriate plan for it.

While mentioning the significant role of PSUs in giving a push to the growth of the Indian economy, the Finance Minister encouraged the PSUs to perform better to achieve their targets and to ensure that the capital outlay provided to them for the financial year 2020-21 is spent properly and within time. She said that better performance of PSUs can help the economy in a big way to recover from the impact of COVID-19.

The PSUs discussed constraints being faced by them especially due to COVID -19 pandemic. The Finance Minister stated that extraordinary situation requires extraordinary efforts and with collective efforts, we will not only perform better but also help the Indian economy to achieve better results.

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