Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has said that it would not good to always press the Finance Secretary for ramping up capital expenditure. He said this during a review meeting on the capital expenditure so far in the current fiscal year.

He said that it is not necessary to tell the Secretary for the expenditure and to tell to do so would not give a good message either. “It is not necessary to organize this kind of meeting regarding capital expenditure time and again and it is also not good. Although it is OK to facilitate to find a solution to problems, it is not good practice to exert pressure for the expenditure for the sake of giving pressure.

This kind of practice should be put to an end,” the Finance Minister viewed. According to him, there would not be a situation calling for exerting pressure if all the Ministries and responsible people were responsible from their respective places. Finance Minister Sharma instructed the Secretary at each Ministry to furnish clear details whether or not expenditure is possible in a particular project and plan.

He directed them to prepare a list of plans in which expenditure is possible and the plans in which it is not. The Finance Minister also urged the secretaries to prepare such a list owing cent per cent responsibility on the expenditure. He also directed them to give their suggestions along with experiences after the half-yearly review of the expenditures.

FM Sharma stressed on the need of the Ministries having greater capital expenditure to take the initiatives for taking the plan ahead. The Ministry of Agriculture should play a greater role in this, he asserted.