The government will review investment of surplus funds by cash-rich Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) in January next year and those companies which fail to invest would have to declare special dividends, sources said.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram has asked CPSEs, which have substantial cash reserves, to invest their reserves as per their investment plan, they said.
The issue arose for discussion during a meeting convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with heads of 25 CPSEs such as ONGC, GAIL, NTPC, SAIL, and BHEL last month.
The cash-rich PSUs were asked to invest their excess cash reserves to accelerate the economic growth at the meeting.
The development comes in the wake of the government finding it hard to meet the fiscal deficit target of 5.1 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the current fiscal.
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