“Capex Increase By 10% Is Not Nominal”: Nirmala Sitharaman Budget Exclusive 

In an exclusive post-Budget interview to NDTV today, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the focus has been on capital expenditure (capex) in the last few years of the Narendra Modi government, and now the government has also given a huge boost to increasing consumption.

She said since the COVID-19 pandemic, the government has been increasing capex by 10-15 per cent to such an extent that the government announced capex of Rs 11.11 lakh crore last year.

“On top of that, a rise in capex by 10.23 per cent in comparison to RE (revenue expenditure) takes it to over Rs 11.21 lakh crore. That is not an ordinary thing… Repeatedly, the public expenditure on asset building has reached such a level that 10.23 per cent growth also seems ordinary,” Ms Sitharaman told NDTV.

“Our emphasis on capex has not reduced. We are also giving states interest-free capex funds,” she said.