Centre sanctioned ₹3.6 L cr to States; GST reforms to inject ₹2 lakh crore into economy: Sitharaman

DELIVERING a keynote address at CII's GCC Business Summit in Andhra Pradesh, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said,”...the Centre, under the Scheme for Special Assistance to States for Capital Investment (SASCI), has sanctioned over Rs 3.6 lakh crore as 50-year interest-free loans to States, and incentivised increased capex, resulting in 22 states recording more than 10 per cent growth in capital expenditure from their own resources.”

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Highlighting the government's push to address infrastructure and logistics bottlenecks, the finance minister stated that the capital investment has increased from 1.7 per cent of GDP in FY14 to 3.2 per cent in FY25, with effective capital expenditure at 4.1 per cent of GDP.

"Over the last 11 years, 88 airports have been operationalised, 31,000 km of new rail tracks laid, metro networks expanded over fourfold, port capacity doubled and the National Highway network has extended by 60 per cent,” she added.

The Finance Minister said the next generation GST reforms will infuse Rs 2 lakh crore into the economy, leaving people with more cash in hand that otherwise would have gone as taxes.