New Delhi: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman Friday asked central government infra ministries to prepare their capital expenditure plans for next four quarters.
At the meeting, Sitharaman also discussed the total capital expenditure (CapEx) by the ministries in 2019-20. By August-end, total CapEx spend of the ministries was at 42 per cent, said expenditure secretary. The detailed meeting was attended by 21 major infrastructure ministries to review progress in spending with the Finance Minister.
“At this stage, my intention is to make sure that government does not sit on payments which are due, government does not sit on CapEx which it had planned,” said Sitharaman after the meeting.
Sitharaman also clarified that she was not revising any budget target, including that of the fiscal deficit. “On the contrary, the expenditure secretary is meeting secretaries of each department and pushing them to spend the allocated money. G.C. Murmu, expenditure secretary has so far held four such meetings,” Sitharaman said.
“I will take a review closer to the stage when revised estimates will be estimated,” she said. Sitharaman said the meetings are held separately with department secretaries and public sector units on a weekly basis to monitor their expenditure plans.
On 6 September, the finance ministry also asked CPSEs and infrastructure ministries to accelerate investment to boost capital expenditure in a sagging economy.
In a meeting jointly chaired by economic affairs secretary Atanu Chakraborty and expenditure secretary G.C. Murmu, the capital expenditure plans of CPSEs and ministries were reviewed, and they were asked to adhere to the expenditure plan for the financial year.
Murmu said out the total outstanding dues of about `60,000 crore, `40,000 crore has been cleared. The government expenditure is on track and we have asked ministires to release payments ina timely manner. Most infrastructure ministries have reached 50pc of their capex target for the current fiscal, he added.
“The ministries and PSUs will clear all the non-litigation related dues. The ministries have cleared most of the dues of goods and services to suppliers, mostly MSMEs, and the remaining payments will be done in the next few days,” she said.
