Clear all Dues by October 15: Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to CPSEs

New Delhi: Asserting that all payment delays to the vendors to be ironed out at the earliest, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday directed the CPSEs to clear all outstanding payments by October 15 to kick off investment cycle in the economy and sought their estimated capex plans for the next four quarters in the same time. She also asked the CPSEs to set up a payments portal by October 15 for tender participations, dealers, service providers to monitor dues payments and clear payments. The Minister has also sought the estimated capex of the CPSEs by October 15 for the next 4 quarters.

“The idea is to front load the capital expenditure. The objective of the meeting was to see the payments which were due to services rendered or goods supplied the PSUs are being held back with the intentions that we have to clear them all by October 15, to get a clear picture of their capex and also the milestones for the four quarters,” Sitharaman said after the meeting in a briefing. “The drive will be done between now and 1st week of October so that all kinds of requirements are made and payments are done before October 15 and by then, they will have a portal through which all dealers and contractors shall start monitoring their payment,” she added. “There will be meeting with the RBI and the Finance Secretary and selected number of CPSE to talk about why bank guarantee are becoming a big hitch or hurdle in government paying up the 75 per cent post arbitration awards. If that is the case, I want RBI help also. The Finance Secretary will discuss with RBI and sort this out”, Sitharaman said.

Expenditure Secretary GC Murmu said the overall capex of the over 200 PSUs will be in excess of Rs 4 lakh crore for the current fiscal and Rs 48,077 crore capex has already been done till August by the 34 CPSEs who were present in the meeting today. “The PSUs have Rs 50,159 crore projects in the pipe line Atill December 2019 and Rs 54,700 crore capital investment by the CPSEs are slated for Q4 of the current fiscal. These 34 CPSEs will have a capex of Rs 1.54 lakh crore by the end of the fiscal,” Murmu said.

The minister also asked them to deal with post arbitration counterclaims with regard to payments and also the nature and history of the arbitration for the stuck payments must be given to the Ministry. Murmu said Rs 49000 crore is stuck in arbitration and road and highways execution PSU NHAI is also involved in some litigations. He said 3-4 CPSEs have hinted at need for government support and the ministry has asked CPSEs to review position & firm up a figure for requirements.

Nirmala Sitharaman met the top brass of the Maharatna and Navratna Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) to review their capital expenditure till date and plans for the next two quarters of this financial year. This meeting was held as part of the series of meetings that the Finance Minister has been having with various stakeholders and the measures that have been taken to accelerate the economic growth rate. (IANS)

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