Indian finance minister asks CPSEs to clear all dues by October 15

Asserting that all payment delays to the vendors to be ironed out at the earliest, Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman yesterday directed the Central Public Sector Enterprises (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% 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 Rs4 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 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 Rs490,000mn 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.