Roadways, railways ministries lead capital spending in FY23 so far: Report

Two major infrastructure ministries, Railways and Road Transport, are recording a high pace of spending in the current financial year with half of the entire capital expenditure budget for the year allocated to them.

The two ministries combined account for Rs 3.24 lakh crore of the Rs 7.50 lakh crore budgeted for 2022-23.

Of Rs 85,279 crore utilised by the Railways in April-August this year, 79 per cent or Rs 67,244.99 crore was capital spending, while for the Road Transport and Highways ministry, 95 per cent of Rs 1.15 lakh crore total spending in the first five months was capital expenditure, The Indian Express reported.

Effectively, the Railways Ministry has already spent 61 per cent of its annual budgetary allocation of Rs 1,40,367.13 crore. In the last financial year, it had utilised only 29 per cent of the total allocation in the first five months, the report added.

On the other hand, the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has utilised 58 per cent or Rs 1.15 lakh crore of its annual allocation of Rs 1.99 lakh crore. Unlike the railways, though, this ministry had spent 66 per cent of its annual budget during the same period last year.

Interestingly, five ministries in the Centre account for 72 per cent of the total capital expenditure for the current financial year - and most of them are concerned with infrastructure. The ministries are the Railways, Road Transport, Defence, Telecommunications, and Housing and Urban Affairs, the report said.