Stressing the need for capital expenditure (capex) by Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs), Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that they need to scale up their capex both in the current and the next financial year.

The Minister also said that better performance of CPSEs can help the Indian economy in a big way to recover from the impact of COVID-19.

During a videoconference meeting with Secretaries of the Ministries of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Coal, along with the CMDs of 14 CPSEs belonging to these ministries,  to review the capex in this financial year, Sitharaman told the Secretaries concerned to closely monitor the performance of CPSEs in order to ensure the capital expenditure to the tune of 75 per cent of the capital outlay by the end of Q3 of FY 2020-21 and make appropriate plan for it.

She noted that that more coordinated efforts are required at the Secretary-level in the ministries and CMDs in CPSEs to achieve capex targets.

In FY 2019-20, against the capex target of Rs 1,11,672 crore for these 14 CPSEs, the achievement was Rs 1,16,323 crore -- 104 per cent.

The capital expenditure target for 2020-21 is Rs 1,15,934 crore.

Mentioning the significant role of CPSEs in giving a push to the growth of the Indian economy, the Finance Minister encouraged the CPSEs to perform better to achieve their targets and to ensure that the capital outlay for FY 2020-21 is spent properly and within time, said an official statement.