Finance Minister Reviews Capital Expenditure in Aviation, Telecom Sectors

Aiming to boost capital expenditure of major infrastructure sectors like civil aviation and telecom, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday undertook a review meeting with the senior officials of both the ministries.

Underlining the need for fast tracking infrastructure development, she said that greater capital expenditure in the next few months is required to achieve higher economic growth.

Capital expenditure of the first two quarters of the current fiscal, front loading of expenditure, estimated targets of capital spending by both civil aviation and telecom ministries and their respective public sector undertakings in the forthcoming quarters of 2021-22, were the main issues discussed during the meeting.

Ms Sitharaman said that ministries must pool in their efforts to ensure greater capital expenditure in the next few months to achieve higher growth in the economy.

She called for regular monitoring of infrastructure projects as well as the funds released for them, adding that such projects come under government's priority areas.

Spending on infrastructure projects should be done also by states as well as the private sector, the finance minister said.