Centre not likely to go for any off-Budget borrowing this year

This is a move that has been hailed by economists and policy-watchers as it makes budgeting a more transparent process

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in this year’s Budget speech, had said that she would discontinue extra-budgetary resources (EBR) funding for the Food Corporation of India, in a continued bid to clean up the central government’s balance sheet and end below-the-line accounting. As a result, the EBR provision for 2021-22 was just Rs 30,000 crore against Rs 1.26 trillion in 2020-21.

But Business Standard has now learnt that even that Rs 30,000-crore provision remains unutilised and as a result off-budget financing this year can be negligible or even zero.

EBR are when expenditure is allotted for schemes run by government