Budget 2018: Steel PSUs' capex slashed by 11% to Rs 113 bn for FY19

The government had budgeted Rs 126.37 billion for these public sector undertakings for the current fiscal

Investments budgeted for nine PSUs under the Ministry of Steel have been lowered by 10.45 per cent to Rs 113.16 billion for the 2018-19 fiscal.

These PSUs are: Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL), Hindustan Steelworks Constructions, NMDC, KIOCL, Manganese Ore India Ltd, MECON, MSTC and Ferro Scrap Nigam Ltd.

The government had budgeted Rs 126.37 billion for these public sector undertakings (PSUs) for the current fiscal.

Investments were further revised downwards to Rs 114.56 billion compared to budget estimates.

The country's top iron ore producer NMDC's capex has been slashed by a huge 27 per cent to Rs 37.78 billion for the next fiscal.

The government had made a budget provision of Rs 51.74 billion for it for the ongoing fiscal.

As per the budget document, RINL's capex has been lowered by 26 per cent at Rs 14 billion for the next fiscal as against Rs 18.91 billion budgeted for the current fiscal.

The capex of domestic steel giant SAIL, however, has been revised upward to Rs 40 billion for 2018-19 as against Rs 35 billion for 2017-18.

The steel ministry expects SAIL to show profit next year on the back of continued improvement in global commodity market.

The country's largest steelmaker has been posting losses since 2015-16, mainly on account of slowdown in the sector.

In 2015-16, SAIL had posted a loss of Rs 40.21 billion while in 2016-17 its loss was Rs 28.33 billion.

As per the budget document, KIOCL's capex has been lowered to Rs 17.82 billion for the next fiscal as against Rs 18 billion budgeted for the current fiscal.