Cabinet secretary AK Seth meets CPSE heads to fast-track proposed investments

NEW DELHI: Cabinet secretary Ajit Kumar Seth has been meeting with heads of Central Public Sector Enterprises in batches to resolve issues flagged by them and fast-track their proposed investments. Now, time-lines are being drawn while resolving the problems faced by the CPSEs, a Union government secretary who was present in such a meeting told ET.

During an interaction with Prime Minister last month, heads of 25 major Maharatna and Navaratna CPSEs pin-pointed the hurdles including shortage of coal, delay in environmental clearances and issues arising out of land acquisition. The cabinet secretary's meeting with the CMDs is a follow-up of that meet.

Cabinet secretary Seth has so far met CMDs of 40 public companies under the administrative control of coal, power, oil and gas and commerce ministries. The CMDs elaborated the issues in detail and the cabinet secretariat is like to co-ordinate with various ministries to resolve those.

The fast removal of the bottlenecks is a key to ensure top CPSEs invest in new projects during the current fiscal itself. The government has estimated that a handful of PSUs such as Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC), Indian Oil, National Thermal Power Corporation ( NTPC), Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited ( BHEL), Steel Authority of India Limited ( SAIL) etc. may invest over Rs 1,76,000 crore in new projects which in turn are expected to drive up economic indicators and create more jobs.

OP Rawat, secretary of department of public enterprises (DPE) said the government is determined to remove the bottlenecks that are coming in the way of new investments by public enterprises. "The government has shown a resolve in removing the hurdles flagged by CPSEs as soon as possible. The cabinet secretary has directed that deadlines would be given while resolving the bottlenecks," he said.

Apart from Rawat, the other top officials present during the cabinet secretary's meetings with the CMDs included finance secretary and secretaries of the respective administrative ministries. The cabinet secretary is expected to meet CMDs of other CPSEs soon.