Govt companies, departments way short of capital expenditure target

CPSEs met only 63% of spending target by December

Despite Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman pushing central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) to frontload capex, government-owned companies were able to spend only 63.3 per cent of their annual capex target of Rs 5.95 trillion in the first nine months of FY22. Slow capex by CPSEs, as well as central ministries may prove to be a hurdle for the finance minister, who is expected to substantially raise the capex allocation in the FY23 Budget.

A government official said CPSEs spent only Rs 3.76 trillion towards capex until December.

In a letter last month, Sitharaman had urged Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to hold