India's spending on major subsidies including fuel, fertiliser and food is likely to hit 2.4% of GDP in the current fiscal year, up from 1.9% targeted in the central budget, Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said on Saturday.
Chidambaram was speaking a day after the government said it was opening up its supermarket sector to foreign chains and two days after it announced a steep increase in the heavily subsidised price of diesel, in a spate of policy reforms aimed at boosting growth and shoring up government finances.