New Delhi: When Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman kicked his consultation on capital expenditure (Capex), one of the reasons for the Telecommunications Department and the electricity ministry called was a low shopping so far.
According to data released by the General Account Controller, during the first half of the financial year, Dot has spent 12% of the Crore RS 25,934 allocated to 41% of expenses for all ministries that are put together.
And, the ministry of power managed to spend only 3% of the allocation.
At the same time, several ministries – from the train to the road, urban and defense development – have succeeded in accelerating their capital expenditure during April-September (see graph).
While there are other ministries who have lower capital expenses compared to full allocation, dot is one of the poorer players.
In terms of numbers, the Department of Economic Affairs has just spent 1% of RS 56,479 Crore for this year, but from the 44,000 RS Crore is money parked with it for provisions for projects and programs that show good progress and need additional funding.
In fact, with the convenience of additional resources available with it, Sitharaman has pushed the ministry to accelerate expenses, promising that funds will not be a problem.
Even the Financial Services Department, which is part of the Ministry of Finance, has so far spent around 5% of the allocation but RS 20,000 Crore from RS 25,800 Crore is intended for capital support for the development of new financial institutions, National Banks for infrastructure and development financing.
Among other ministries lagging behind the entire running rate is power, information technology and the Ministry of Micro & Medium Enterprises and the Ganga Rejuvenation Department.
But this is a ministry with a smaller allocation, the police are among those who have a higher budget to lag behind in the first round, spend less than a quarter of more than RS 9,700 Crore shown by official data.