New Delhi, Oct 19 (KNN) Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said that better performance of central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) can help the economy in a big way to recover from the impact of COVID-19.

The Minister said this during a virtual meeting with secretaries of coal and petroleum & natural gas, along with the chairman and managing directors (CMDs) of 14 CPSEs belonging to these ministries.

According to an official statement, this was 4th in the ongoing series of meetings that the Finance Minister is having with various stakeholders to accelerate the economic growth in the background of COVID–19 pandemic.

While reviewing the performance of CPSEs, Sitharaman said that CAPEX by CPSEs is a critical driver of economic growth and needs to be scaled up for the FYs 2020-21 & 2021-22.

The Finance Minister asked the concerned Secretaries to closely monitor the performance of CPSEs in order to ensure the capital expenditure to the tune of 75 per cent of the capital outlay by the end of Q3 of FY 2020-21 and make appropriate plans for it.

She expounded that more coordinated efforts are required at the levels of Secretary of concerned Ministries and CMDs of CPSEs to achieve CAPEX targets.

''In FY 2019-20, against the CAPEX target of Rs. 1,11,672 crore for these 14 CPSEs, the achievement was Rs. 1,16,323 crore i.e. 104%. FY 2019-20, H1 achievement was Rs. 43,097 crore (39%) and achievement of FY 2020-21, H1 is Rs. 37,423 crore (32%). CAPEX target for 2020-21 is Rs. 1,15,934 crore,'' the official statement said.

While mentioning the significant role of CPSEs in giving a push to the growth of the Indian economy, the Finance Minister encouraged the CPSEs to perform better to achieve their targets and to ensure that the capital outlay for FY 2020-21 is spent properly and within time.

The CPSEs CAPEX review is carried out jointly by the Department of Economic Affairs and Department of Public Enterprises.