New Delhi: Faced with difficult government finances, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday asked cash-rich 25 central PSUs to invest their surplus fund of Rs 2.5 lakh crore to reignite economic growth. In a meeting convened by the Prime Minister and also attended by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, the top PSUs were given a stern message that they either invest their huge surplus or pay it back as special dividend to the exchequer.
"Drawing attention to the large surpluses of CPSEs, the Prime Minister asked them to use that surplus for their own benefits and benefit of the economy. They should use it for driving investment, growth and jobs. Investing such surplus would help in reigniting growth impulses...," a statement from the Prime Minister's Office said.
The Prime Minister said the country should achieve a growth level of 8-8.5 per cent regardless of what happens in the world economy. "We must learn to swim and swim fast enough, whatever be the circumstances," Singh said.
Heads of 25 PSUs, including the cash-rich ONGC, Coal India, BHEL, NTPC, SAIL, NMDC, attended the meeting, which comes in the wake of the government finding it hard to meet the fiscal deficit target of 5.1 per cent of the GDP for the current fiscal.
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