Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman here today held Video Conference with Secretaries of the Ministries of Power, Mines and Department of Atomic Energy and the CMDs of 10 CPSEs belonging to these Ministries, to review the capital expenditure (CAPEX) in this financial year. This was 5^th in the ongoing series of meetings that the Finance Minister is having with various stakeholders to accelerate the economic growth in the background of COVID – 19 pandemic.

The overall achievement as on 23rd November, 2020 is ₹ 24227 crore (39.4%) against the CAPEX target for 2020-21 i.e. ₹ 61483 crore.

While reviewing the performance of CPSEs, Smt. Sitharaman said that CAPEX by CPSEs is a critical driver of economic growth and need to be scaled up for the FYs 2020-21 & 2021-22. The Finance Minister appreciated the efforts of the Ministries and CPSEs for making visible efforts to meet out the CAPEX targets. However, Smt. Sitharaman said that more efforts are still required to achieve the target of 75% CAPEX by Q3 and more than 100% by Q4 of the FY 21. The Finance Minister encouraged the 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.

Smt. Sitharaman asked the Secretaries to closely monitor the performance of CPSEs in order to ensure to achieve the target of CAPEX and make plan for it. She also asked the Secretaries to proactively sort out the unresolved issues of the CPSEs.

Capital expenditure targets for public sector enterprises must be accelerated and closely monitored to support economic recovery. Capital expenditure by Central Public Sector Enterprises is directed to be accelerated as a key economic driver, with ministry secretaries and CPSE leadership instructed to monitor performance, resolve impediments, ensure timely utilisation of allocated capital outlays, and meet sequential quarterly utilisation benchmarks to support economic recovery.