Finance Minister asks PSUs, ​ministries to release payments in a timely manner

The finance ministry has asked government departments to clear outstanding dues of suppliers and service providers worth Rs 20,000 crore within the first week of October to provide liquidity in the festival season. It also called for investment plans of ministries over the next four quarters in a bid to lift growth through capital spending while reiterating that government spending would continue as budgeted, fiscal concerns not with standing.
 

“The intention is to ensure that no government department is sitting on their dues for the goods and services received by it from any vendor, MSMEs,” finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said after meeting secretaries and financial advisors on Friday.
  

The larger intention has been, the money should go where people have been waiting for a long time,” she said. “The other being money should really get going into the ground, literally get grounded and the projects should really get germinated and see progress within the next four quarters.”


The minister will meet the heads of public sector enterprises on Saturday to review their capital spending.

 
G C Murmu, secretary (expenditure), said out of the total outstanding dues of Rs 60,000 crore from various government departments in the current financial year, around Rs 40,000 crore have already been released.


In line with the government’s plan to clear its outstanding dues, Sitharaman said 90% of the dues under GST refunds as of August 23 have been cleared. #casansaar (Source- Economic Times)