Government to increase expenditure
It was very much expected, and it has happened. In a week of budget speech in parliament, finance minister has arrived with additional expenditure for the fiscal year. Now Rs. 12,000 crore will be overspent.
Pranab Mukherjee asked for Parliament's approval for expenditure of Rs. 69,000 crore. This expenditure is nowhere mentioned in his budget speech. Convincing all doubts, Pranab Mukherjee said that these additional expenditures are not going to adversely affect current fiscal deficit target of 5.1%.
Mukherjee said in his statement, "We've provided Rs. 68,000 crore in the third batch of supplementary. But most of this will spill over to the next fiscal. Therefore there is no question of over-shooting the numbers".
According to calculation revealed by Pranab Mukherjee, of the exceeded spend of Rs. 68,918 crore, Rs. 12,000 crore will be overspent amount. As in the revised expenditure estimates for the fiscal year 2011, expenditure of around Rs. 57,000 crore has been factored.
So, the remaining Rs. 12,000 crore will be actual 'overspent' money. With this, finance minister will be able to firm on expenditure estimate of Rs. 12.16 lakh crore, which is already up from previous estimate of Rs. 11.09 lakh crore. Government will also attempt to clear pending subsidy payments of last few years, in order to not allow them getting accumulated for the next fiscal years.