Sitharaman wants to track progress of Private and PPP spending on infrastructure
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has directed the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) to press on CAPEX spending on projects under the Civil Aviation Ministry and Department of Telecommunications.
Reviewing projects on 25 Oct 2021, the Minister emphasised that there must be an accelerated phase of infrastructure development and Ministries must continuously make concerted efforts to ensure that project implementation is fast-tracked.
Sitharaman exhorted officials to monitor implementation of projects besides monitoring release of funds and reiterated that infrastructure projects are priority for the Government and necessary funds will be made available for CAPEX.
She underlined that the infrastructure spending includes not only Central Government budgetary expenditure on infrastructure, but also spending by State Governments and the private sector. The private CAPEX on infrastructure, and those under Public-Private Partnership should also be tracked to capture the entire infra progress in the country.
The Finance Minister also directed DEA officials to ensure that more projects are initiated and CAPEX spending in FY23 is substantially increased than the present target. Further, she asked the Department of Telecommunications to push its CPSE CAPEX, fast-track asset monetization, and work in close coordination with DIPAM to finalise the process of monetization at the earliest, ensuring expeditious implementation of digital expansion plans in entire North-East region on priority.
During the meeting, she discussed CAPEX status of Q1 and Q2, front-loading of CAPEX, estimated targets of capital spending by Ministries and their Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) in the upcoming quarters of current financial year, expenditure incurred for implementation of National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) projects, estimation of funds to be raised by asset monetization, projects undertaken through PPP and Convergence under National Master Plan (Gati Shakti).
Sitharaman reiterated that Ministries must pool in all efforts to ensure higher capital spending in coming months to achieve higher growth in the economy.
She told secretaries concerned to push expenditure on infrastructure projects in current FY as well as plan for next FY. #tenders #projects #investment #infrastructure /fiinews.com
