StatsGuru: 24-February-2014

Making sense of this year's interim Budget numbers

Perhaps the most watched figures in this year's interim Budget dealt with the government's deficit. As Table 1 shows, following a big jump after 2008-09, the government has struggled to bring the fiscal deficit under control.

As Table 2 shows, this has been done primarily by reducing expenditure - revenue as a percentage of GDP has not really gone far above the 10 per cent mark, far from the 12 per cent it has reached in the past. Worryingly, interest payments as a percentage of net tax revenues have not markedly declined, oscillating around 43 per cent, as shown in Table 3. (Click here for tables)

The other big change in the interim Budget was some major reworking of Plan expenditure. As Table 4 shows, a big jump in the resources transferred to the states was conducted; while they have grown steadily to keep up with nominal GDP in the past, this year they saw an outsized increase.

This corresponds to decrease in Central Plan outlays for several sectors and ministries, as shown in Tables 5 and 6. Transport and technology continued to be funded at the Centre. But other heads - such as rural development, education and social services - saw a precipitous fall.