Budget 2014: Govt May Hike Plan Outlay By Around 11, 000 Cr

New Delhi: The new government may enhance the Plan expenditure for 2014-15 by around Rs 11,000 crore in the Budget next month, which would be about 2 per cent higher than what was provided in the previous fiscal’s budget.

However, the proposed plan spending for the fiscal would be higher by about Rs 90,790 crore or 19 per cent over the revised estimates for 2013-14.

The plan expenditure, or GBS (gross budgetary support), is the government spending on social sector schemes such as Bharat Nirman, rural employment guarantee and National Rural Health Mission.

“The new government may increase GBS by Rs 11,000 crore which would be around two per cent higher than Rs 5, 55,322 crore provided in the 2013-14 budget,” a source said.

According him, the GBS figure has already been finalised for the General Budget which would be presented in Parliament next month.

A senior official said that there is little scope to increase the Plan spending over the last budget as government is required to keep the fiscal deficit in check.

According to the latest government data, the fiscal deficit in 2013-14 stood at 4.5 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), lower than 4.6 per cent projected in the revised estimate, mainly on account of curbs on government expenditure.