Finance Minister Briefing: Government Lays Road Map For Rs 102 Lakh Crore Infrastructure Spending
The finance minister will address the media on recent decisions of the Modi government. Follow live updates here.
Government Lays Road Map For Rs 102 Lakh Crore Infrastructure Spending
A high-level task force has recommended Rs 102 lakh crore spending on infrastructure till 2025. This will be done under the National Infrastructure Pipeline framework, Nirmala Sitharaman said. The framework will be a coordination between the Centre, states and private sector, for detailed planning, information dissemination and monitoring implementation of the projects.
Of this, the share of funding the Centre will be 39 percent. The share of the states will be 39 percent while that of the private sector will be 22 percent. The share of private sector is expected to rise to 30 percent by 2025, Sitharaman said.
Yearly Spending Pattern
- 2019-20: Rs 14.6 lakh crore
- 2020-21: Rs 19.5 lakh crore
- 2022-23: Rs 13.8 lakh crore
- 2023-24: Rs 12.9 lakh crore
The government will also organise an annual global investor meet where Centre and states can meet investors and look at investment opportunities. There will also be an annual supplementary report with an updated list of projects and the progress on ongoing projects. Sitharaman said the government is looking at steps to improve public-private partnership projects.
Sectorwise Lineup of Projects
- Energy: Rs 25 lakh crore
- Roads: Rs 20 lakh crore
- Railways: Rs 14 lakh crore
- Ports and airports: Rs 2.5 lakh crore
- Digital infrastructure projects: Rs 3.2 lakh crore
- Irrigation, rural, agriculture & food processing: Rs 16 lakh crore
- Mobility projects: Rs 16 lakh crore
Watch the full press conference here.
Finance Minister To Hold Press Conference Amid Slowing Growth
The Finance Minister will address the media today at a time when the country’s economic growth has slowed to an over six-year-low.
Gross domestic product growth came in at 4.5 percent in the second quarter of 2019-20 compared to 5 percent in the first quarter. In gross value-added terms, the economy grew at 4.3 percent compared to 4.9 percent in the previous quarter.
The government on its part has initiated various measures since August to curb the slide. It reduced corporate tax rates, introduced a special rescue fund for stuck housing projects, announced relief measures for exports and brought a new partial guarantee scheme allowing state-run banks to buy lower-rated assets from non-banking lenders for improving credit offtake. It has also directed banks that no stressed small business be declared a bad loan.
However, those efforts are yet to show up in the numbers. Retail inflation has surged to the highest in over three years due to a steep rise in prices of vegetables like onions and pulses. Industrial output has contracted due to weakness in manufacturing, mining and electricity generation. Besides, exports have fallen for a fourth straight month.
All this throws up a significant challenge heading into the new year for Nirmala Sitharaman, as she also prepares to deliver the Union Budget in the next one month.
Follow the updates from today’s press conference live here.