Large PSUs spend Rs 50,200 crore in capex in April FY25, says official

Large public sector companies have spent a little over Rs 50,200 crore towards capital expenditure in April FY25 alone, which is 6.46 per cent of their full fiscal target of Rs 7.77 trillion, an official said.

The pace albeit is slower than Rs 54,177 crore capex spent in April FY24, about 7.3 per cent of the full year budget target of Rs 7.42 trillion.

"The capex spending will pick up going forward. Also, the numbers for April are still provisional and will go up in the revised final numbers," the official told PTI.

The capital expenditure during the first month of 2024-25 fiscal was driven by railways, road, and oil and gas sectors.

The Indian Railways and sector PSUs spent Rs 26,641 crore in April, followed by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) at Rs 6,645 crore.

Among oil and gas sector PSUs, ONGC incurred capex of Rs 2,318 crore, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) Rs 2,423 crore in the first month of the current financial year.

Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd spent Rs 1,155 crore and Rs 417 crore, respectively in April.

Power sector PSU NTPC spent Rs 2,083 crore.

The finance ministry tracks capital expenditure of public sector undertakings (PSUs) that have an annual investment target of over Rs 100 crore.

The Interim Budget for 2024-25 set a cumulative capital expenditure target of Rs 9.01 trillion for all public sector undertakings. Of this, Rs 7.77 trillion worth capex is to be spent by PSUs with over Rs 100 crore of annual capital expenditure target.

In 2023-24, large PSUs spent Rs 8.05 trillion towards capex, exceeding the budget target of Rs 7.42 trillion.