Nirmala Sitharaman asks CPSUs to clear pending dues by October 15

After meeting the Heads of Central Public Sector Units (CPSUs) on Saturday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated that the CPSUs had been asked to clear their pending dues by October 15. She further added that a special drive would be conducted till the first week of October to ensure that all the requirements are met in this regard. This move follows her discussions with officials of various ministries on Friday, where she asked them to accelerate payment of dues to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), contractors and vendors. Also, the total Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) of the CPSUs was reviewed.  

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New portal to regulate the payments 

She observed that the objective of the meeting was to get information on the pending dues and the timeline of the CAPEX. It was announced that a portal would be created to monitor the payment status. 

She said, “The objective of the meeting was to see if payments which are due to service rendered or goods supplied or any other work done for the agencies and the PSUs are being held back with the intention that we need to clear them all by Oct 15. Second, we wanted to get a clear picture of their CAPEX, their timeline and the milestones for the next 4 quarters.” The Finance Minister added, “The first thing is to try also to see how payment can be done with a great sense of ease, rather than trying each time to review. So I have taken that as a position. A drive will be done between now and say, the first week of October so that all kinds of requirements are met and payments are done before October 15. A portal should be made available, which every person who deals with those agencies, be they good suppliers, service suppliers or us in the Finance Ministry, we will all be able to access the portal through which we can track the payments. They (CPSUs) would do it by October 15.” 

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Post-arbitration review 

Sitharaman asked the CPSUs to review all the post-arbitration counterclaims and revealed that they were making purchases of goods and services that were already available in the Government e-Marketplace (GEM) from outside.  

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“Then, in general without compromising the interest of the organization, I have asked them to have a review of all the post-arbitration counterclaims. Then they were specific delays that were mentioned- this is a regular kind of a delay. The delay of a regular nature was frequently used. I have asked them what it means. They should give me a picture of the lifespan of an arbitration. Rs. 60,000 crore approximately is estimated to be that much of procurement done by the Public Sector Undertakings outside the GEM for those goods and services that are even available in the platform,” she stated. 

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