In order to assess the position of expenditure in the Government, especially capital expenditure, Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman reviewed the position of Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) of select Ministries having large outlays here today. Some Ministries, which include Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Ministry of Human Resource Development, receive Grant-in- Aid from the Budget but large part of the expenditure is made to create capital assets such as IITs, AIIMSs etc. The meeting was attended by Secretaries and Financial Advisors of all major Ministries.

To address the growth challenge, Government has been holding wide ranging stakeholder consultations and has taken several steps to provide boost to the economy. Today’s meeting was in continuation of a series of meetings held by Secretary (Expenditure) to review CAPEX as well as to ensure that due payments to contractors, GeM dues and MSME dues are cleared. Another meeting is scheduled tomorrow with the Maharatnas and Navratnas.

Expenditure, both revenue and capital, made by the Union government provides a major boost to aggregate demand. Total expenditure of the Central government for FY 2019-20 through the budget is ₹ 27.86 lakh crore. Of this Capital expenditure is budgeted at ₹ 3.38 lakh crore (12.2%) in BE 2019-20 as against revenue expenditure of ₹ 24.27 lakh crore (87.8%).

During review , the Finance Minister impressed upon the Ministries/ Departments that regular payments must be cleared expeditiously as it spurs investment cycle. She emphasised that all efforts must be made to ensure that outstanding payments are cleared before the festival season.

Apart from the budgeted allocation under capital head of ₹ 3.38 lakh crore for 2019-20, the total amount given to Ministries/ Departments as Grant in Aid (GIA) for creation of capital assets amounts to ₹ 2.07 lakh crore. Thus the total amount available for CAPEX for 2019-20 is ₹ 5.45 lakh crore. Total CAPEX till August under capital head has been reported at ₹ 1.36 lakh crore (40.28%) and that under GIA has been reported at ₹ 0.82 lakh crore (39.7%) totalling ₹ 2.18 lakh crore (40%).

Apart from Gross Budgetary Support (GBS), Ministries have been sanctioned ₹ 0.57 lakh crore EBR, out of which ₹ 0.46 lakh crore has been approved. EBR expenditure also adds to the overall capital expenditure of the Government.

While the capital expenditure till August 2019 is around 40% at ₹ 2.18 lakh crore from GBS, the Finance Minister also took stock of the expenditure plans for the next two quarters and directed that Secretaries and the Financial Advisors must closely monitor the execution of capital works and ensure that payments are released on time as to achieve the targeted capital expenditure of ₹ 5.45 lakh crore. She directed that the capital expenditure must be monitored on a monthly basis to ensure that there are no slippages.

Purchases made on GeM platform were also reviewed. For the purchases made by the Central government departments total payment of ₹ 6533.61 crore has been released while state governments have released payments of ₹ 4851 cr. Ministries/ Departments were advised to expeditiously clear payments since large number of vendors on GeM are MSMEs.

Shri G C Murmu , Secretary (Expenditure) informed that CPSEs had released payment of ₹ 20,157 crore in the last three months. He stated that Department of Expenditure would constantly monitor the progress of large infrastructure projects for the Ministries as well as the CPSEs and further follow-up meetings would be held.  He informed that meetings with the Ministries/Departments to assess RE for 2019-20 and the BE for 2020-21 would be initiated from the middle of October 2019. Ministries/Departments were asked to make accurate assessment of resource requirements and make projections. This would enhance allocative efficiency.

Capital expenditure monitoring: ministries must expedite vendor payments and monitor project execution to meet CAPEX targets. Review of central government capital expenditure directed ministries to expedite clearance of outstanding payments to contractors, GeM vendors and MSMEs, and to monitor capital works monthly to achieve targeted aggregate CAPEX composed of capital head allocations, Grant-in-Aid for capital asset creation, and extra-budgetary resources; Department of Expenditure and ministries to intensify monitoring of large infrastructure projects and undertake follow-up reviews for revised and budget estimates to improve resource assessment and allocative efficiency.