Govt prods PSUs to step up capex to revive eco growth
Times of India, Delhi   08-Jul-2020

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday sought to push capital expenditure by the country's top public sector companies, as part of the government's drive to boost investment in the economy and revive growth.

Separately, the government is looking at ways to fast-track some of the investment as part of the over Rs 100-lakh-crore National Infrastructure Pipeline as higher spending in creating assets is expected to spur the demand for cement, steel and other crucial inputs, in addition to creating employment.

Sitharaman discussed the capex plan of 23 public sector companies with their CMDs and secretaries of ministries of petroleum, power, coal, mines and atomic energy. These state-run companies, including IndianOil,

NTPC, Coal India, NMDC and SAIL, have been the Centre's go-to entities to not just step up investment but also to milch them at the end of the year by seeking hefty dividends for the government to meet its revenue targets.

"This meeting was held as part of the series of meetings that the finance minister is having with various stakeholders to accelerate economic growth," an official statement said.

While PSUs had overachieved the capex target during the last financial year, they are seen to be lagging in the first quarter of the current fiscal due to the lockdown, which forced companies to put projects on hold. In fact, several companies have complained of a manpower crunch holding full-scale resumption. The manpower issue is, however, expected to be sorted out in the coming weeks as migrant workers are slowly retur ning.

"The ministries/CPSEs discussed constraints being faced by them due to Covid-19 like problems of availability of manpower, delay in imports, delay in payments by discoms on the dues of CPSEs like NPCIL and NLC (Neyveli Lignite). Sitharaman stated that the extraordinary situation requires extraordinary efforts and, with collective effort, "we will not only perform better but also help the Indian economy to achieve better results", the statement added.

Ministries have been instructed to ensure that the PSUs step up their capex significantly during the current quarter itself to ensure that half the spending for the current financial year is completed by September, with all concerns and pending issues to be flagged immediately so that a solution can be found.