FM reviews progress of CAPEX, infrastructure projects

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday chaired review meetings with the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Department of Telecommunications in New Delhi to give a fillip to capital expenditure CAPEX and infrastructure progress in the country. The Finance 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.During the meeting, CAPEX status of First Quarter and Second Quarter, Front-loading of CAPEX, estimated targets of capital spending by Ministries and their Central Public Sector Enterprises in the upcoming quarters of the current financial year, expenditure incurred for the implementation of National Infrastructure Pipeline projects, estimation of funds to be raised by asset monetization, projects are undertaken through Public-Private Partnership and Convergence under National Master Plan Gati Shakti were discussed. Ms Sitharaman reiterated that Ministries must pool in all efforts to ensure higher capital spending in the coming months to achieve higher growth in the economy.
She exhorted officials to monitor the implementation of projects besides monitoring the release of funds.  Ms Sitharaman reiterated that infrastructure projects are a priority for the Government and necessary funds will be made available for CAPEX. The Minister 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.