States cut FY20 capital expenditure by 0.6% of GDP, says RBI study

The cut in capex in FY20 was so big that the rate of capital spending to GDP dropped from the 2018-19 levels for all states

States may see a massive cut in capital expenditure in FY21 due to the revenue impact of the pandemic, the Reserve Bank of India said in its annual study of state finances released on Tuesday. 

The report “State Finances: A Study of Budgets of 2020-21” found that states drastically cut their capex by Rs 1.26 trillion, or nearly 0.6 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), in the previous fiscal year 2019-20. This is the sharpest cut in at least two decades, the report shows, and it happened before the pandemic hit the economy. 

The cut in capex in FY20