NEW DELHI: As India’s growth slows down towards what many are describing as the big chill, the government has started prodding state-run public sector undertakings (PSUs) to step up investment and wooing large corporates — both Indian and MNCs — to invest in the country.
Top officials said PSU capital expenditure is being monitored and they hoped that over Rs 1 lakh crore will be invested by large PSUs in the second half of this fiscal. “There have been some slippages in their project but we are hoping to steer them towards spending on their committed capex plans,” said officials. Oil PSUs have been among the best performers in terms of capex spending, having spent nearly two-thirds of their committed capex said, officials.
While ONGC has the largest capital outlay at Rs 32,921 crore. To part fund it, ONGC is taking a $300 million forex bond at 3.375 percent coupon rate. Among others IOC has a capex of Rs 25,083 crore and HPCL and BPCL has a combined capex plan of Rs 17,400 crore.
Officials said the commerce ministry has been in touch with some of India’s top business houses seeking to encourage them to make greenfield and brownfield investment plans as also top MNCs, especially those American and Japanese MNCs looking to relocate out of China for a variety of reasons ranging from tariff war, to higher cost of operations and frequent changes by Beijing in its policy towards foreign investors.
At the same time Chinese electronics and automobile players were also being encouraged to expand in India by adding more value here. “We have already had several successes especially in the electronics sphere and have foxcon, apple, Huawei, Oppo and others increasing their presence in India,” said officials, adding they were expecting some major defense investment announcement soon.
Officials said the newly formed CCIG would be monitoring their efforts. The CCIG is supposed to identify and monitor all projects over Rs 1,000 crore.
CCIG to identify, monitor projects over Rs 1,000 crore
The newly formed Cabinet Committee on Investment and Growth (CCIG) would be monitoring their efforts, according to the officials. The CCIG is supposed to identify as well as monitor all projects more than Rs 1,000 crore