With the aim to push accelerated capital spending and timely infrastructure development, Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman chaired review meetings with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Ministry of Steel on Tuesday.
The review meetings were attended by respective secretaries and top officials of the concerned ministries.
According to the Ministry of Finance, Capital Expenditure (Capex) plans of Ministries and their CPSEs for Q3 and Q4, Capex achievements of Q1 and Q2, expenditure incurred on National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP), projects undertaken through PPP, estimation of funds to be raised by asset monetization and Convergence under National Master Plan (Gati Shakti) were discussed in the meeting.
Noting the good progress of Capex in the three ministries, the Finance Minister suggested front-loading of Capex in the third quarter of FY22 and in the first half-year of FY23.
Sitharaman reiterated that infrastructure projects are a priority for the Government and to achieve the intended vision of the Capex stimulus given in the Union Budget, an increase of 34.50 per cent over last year, it is essential that physical and financial projects targets are expended in the early quarters of the financial year.
In the review with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Sitharaman suggested that may shift from quarterly to a monthly review of specific projects to ensure timely completion of projects.
In the discussion with the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, the Finance Minister observed that since refineries are key infrastructure assets essential to economic growth, their progress forms an important part of the infrastructure sector.
Ministry of Steel said that the steel production is already at 90 per cent of its pre-pandemic levels and in the next two quarters it is expected to achieve its highest-ever production.
The Finance Minister observed that the steel sector has great potential and highlighted that the sector will benefit from the recently launched Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) for speciality steel under Aatma Nirbhar Bharat for speciality steel production.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the series of review meetings starting last week of October this year is the third session by Sitharaman on CAPEX with various infrastructure ministries and departments and in continuation of the previous round of meetings held in June 2021.
( With inputs from ANI )
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