The Central Government ‘s total expenditure grew around 6 per cent to Rs 10,21,619.7 crore during the first seven months of 2015/16. Plan expenditure saw a meagre growth of 1.4 per cent compared to fairly decent growth of around 8 per cent in the no-plan spending during the same period.
In the current fiscal , plan and non-plan spending have declined four times and three times, respectively, during April- October, on a year-on-year basis.
Plan expenditure, which stood at Rs 2,70,690 crore during April-October 2015, was 58.2 per cent of the budgeted target for FY16. In the corresponding period of the previous year, this figure was lower by around 12 percentage points at 46.4 per cent of the budgeted target.
Let’s analyse closely as to which ministries have been able to utilise their funds and the ones still lagging behind.
In terms of increasing their spends, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways , Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers, and Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation were the frontrunners by an increased expenditure of 65.9 per cent, 54.79 per cent, 45.45 per cent and 42.97 per cent, respectively during April-October 2015.
The spending by these ministries stood at 73 per cent, 59 per cent, 28 per cent and 103 per cent of their respective budgeted estimates of 2015/16.
Ministries such as Ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation and Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises have seen a decline in their plan spending by 79.9 per cent and 53.2 per cent, respectively, during the seven month period. As a per cent of their budgeted estimates, these ministries have spent 6 per cent and 23 per cent, respectively, during the same period.
A majority of ministries have seen an improvement in meeting their budgeted targets for the period during April/October 2015 compared to the corresponding period in the previous year. The plan spending by major ministries appears to be more or less on track as more than 50 per cent of the ministries having been able to cover more than 50 per cent of their budgeted target for 2015/16.
Here’s hoping the momentum will continue in the next five months of the fiscal.
[“source-businesstoday”]
