With a view to keeping the task cut out for the in-coming minister, the finance ministry has given a relook to the capital expenditure plans of as many as 13 PSUs, including ONGC, SAIL and BHEL.
The proposals to kick-start the investment cycle would be placed before the new minister for further action at the earliest, a senior finance ministry official said on Wednesday. “Finance Secretary Arvind Mayaram reviewed the capital plans. The whole idea is to prepare ground for the new finance minister and the new government to foster growth,” he added.
There could also be separate review of capital expenditure plans of power and telecom sector PSUs before May 26, the day Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi is due to be sworn in, he said.
He further expressed the hope that capital expenditure plans of the PSUs in the current fiscal year would be higher than what they had in 2013-14.
“Last fiscal year, we had Rs2.57 lakh crore capital expenditure plans of for all the PSUs. We achieved Rs2.48 lakh crore capital expenditure. This year we should look to better it,” he said.
