Union Budget 2022: Public investment to crowd-in the private

Sitharaman said capital investment holds the key to speedy and sustained economic revival

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday raised capital expenditure (capex) by 35.4 per cent for financial year 2022-23 (FY23) to Rs 7.5 trillion over the Budget Estimate (BE) of FY22 to continue the public investment-led recovery of the pandemic-battered economy.

Capex in the Revised Estimates (RE) for FY22 bumped up to Rs 6.3 trillion due to settlement of Air India’s debt amounting to Rs 51,971 crore before it was handed over to the Tata group. However, keeping that aside, the government’s capex in FY22 is set to fall short by Rs 3,496 crore in RE as against BE. In the