Government tells PSUs to clear all dues by October 15

INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in a press briefing on Saturday mandated the central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) to pay
outstanding dues to dealers and vendors by October 15.Sitharaman said that beyond that no excuses will be heard. FM added that a portal will
be up by October 15 for service providers, vendors and contractors to track bills and payments so that liquidity crunch is mitigated. The
Finance Minister met with 32 CPSEs in the capital to discuss outstanding payments issue and capex situation.Finance Secretary Rajiv Kumar
said 34 central PSUs have already spent Rs 48,077 crore till August and have detailed spending of another Rs 50,159 crore till December 2019
Another Rs 54,700 crore would be spent in the January-March quarter.Expenditure Secretary Girish Chandra Murmu said capex of all the 242-odd
PSUs will be over Rs 4 lakh crore.The government has been working to increase the capex to boost the sluggish economy that has hit a
six-year low
On the government’s expenditure plan, Murmu on Friday said the Centre has spent Rs 2.18 lakh crore for capital expenditure so far in the
financial year 2020.