New Delhi: In a virtual conference held on 29 June Tuesday, Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman along with senior government officials of other ministries and departments discussed the infrastructure roadmap ahead. This review meeting for CAPEX and Infrastructure of Roadmaps was conducted by the ministries for the sixth time.

During the review meeting, Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) plans of Ministries and their CPSEs, the status of implementation of budget announcements, and measures to expedite infrastructure investment were discussed. While reviewing the CAPEX performance of the ministries and their CPSEs, Finance Minister emphasized that enhanced CAPEX will play a critical role in revitalizing the economy post-pandemic and encouraged the Ministries to front-load their capital expenditure and have requested for more targets to be aimed.

Sitharaman said that the Budget for Financial Year 2021-22 provided a capital outlay of Rs. 5.54 lakh crore with a sharp increase of 34.5% over the Budget Estimate of 2020-21.

Sitharaman even highlighted that the infrastructure expenditure is not just Central Government budgetary expenditure on infrastructure and includes infrastructure spending by State Governments and the private sector. It also includes the Government expenditure through extra-budgetary resources and hence expects to get the funding for the projects at a high level and shall also complete it within the time frame.

This review meeting was conducted by the ministries for the sixth time. Finance Secretary & Expenditure Secretary Dr. T.V. Somanathan and Secretary, Economic Affairs, Shri Ajay Seth, Secretary (Public Enterprises), Secretary (Steel), Secretary (Housing & Urban Affairs), Secretary (Petroleum & Natural Gas), and Secretary (Space), as well as CMDs/CEOs of CPSEs of these Ministries/Departments, attended the Virtual Conference.