54% more expenditure: Ministries rush to reflect Budget benefits on ground

Affordable Housing biggest gainer as HUPA allocation jumps 400% year on year

The front-loading of expenditure by the Centre because of Budget advancement has led to a huge increase in allocation of funds for several departments, social sectors, rural schemes and infrastructure. Leading the way are ministries of housing and urban poverty alleviation, rural development, agriculture, road transport and health.

The expenditure for April-May 2017 was Rs 4.59 lakh crore, a 54 per cent jump over Rs 2.98 lakh crore in the corresponding period last year, according to the Controller General of Accounts data released last Friday.

Business Standard has learnt that the biggest rise in percentage terms was with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA). This indicated work on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s affordable housing schemes was progressing at a decent pace. Officials said Rs 3,000 crore had already been allocated to the HUPA, compared with Rs 599 crore for April-May last year, a 400 per cent jump.

“The HUPA had sought permission from the finance ministry to be allocated nearly 50 per cent of the total spending estimate for the year because work on affordable housing had picked up. It was provided to them,” said an official. The total annual allocation for the HUPA is Rs 6,406 crore.

The allocation to the Ministry of Rural Development for April-May was Rs 27,958 crore, compared with Rs 27,800 crore for the same period last year. However, officials said, of the latter amount, around Rs 12,000 crore was to pay outstanding dues from 2015-16. Hence, effectively, spending in April-May 2016 was Rs 15,800 crore. Officials said there were no major dues for rural development carried over from 2016-17. 

Most of the allocation was directed towards the the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.

Other big gainers include the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, whose allocation rose to Rs 16,293 crore in April-May this year, from Rs 9,235 crore for the same period last year, a 76 per cent jump. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare got Rs 7,784 crore, up 56 per cent year-on-year from Rs 5,000 crore. The information technology department got Rs 699 crore in April-May, a 177 per cent rise. For April-May, the agriculture ministry was allocated Rs 13,094 crore, compared with Rs 6,700 crore for the corresponding period last year, a 95 per cent increase in allocation.

Budget 2017-18 was marked by three important changes. The railway and Union Budgets were merged. Plan and non-Plan classifications of expenditure were abolished and replaced by revenue expenditure and capital expenditure classifications; and the date of Budget presentation was advanced from February 28 to February 1. 

This allowed the passage of the finance bill by March 31, unlike previous years, when a vote-on-account was used to keep the government running in April-June quarter, and the Finance Bill used to be passed in May.

The budgeted fiscal deficit target for 2017-18 is Rs 5.46 lakh crore, or 3.2 per cent of gross domestic product, compared with revised estimates of 3.5 per cent in 2016-17.