• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager
• Smartbuy

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Our Bureau

New Delhi, June 5 The Centre’s subsidy bill in 2008-09 for food and other items are likely to exceed the amounts provided for in the Budget 2008-09, thereby putting pressure on the fisc and the fiscal responsibility and Budget management targets.

The Finance Ministry is, however, of the view that the amounts allocated in Budget 2008-09 were adequate as of today, with only two months into the current fiscal.

In the current fiscal, the Centre is already faced with pressures of additional expenditures from sixth pay commission recommendations, new oil bonds amounting to about Rs 95,000 crore that may have to be issued for the current fiscal and provisioning of about Rs 30,000 crore for the ambitious farm debt waiver program of the UPA Government.

No provision has so far been made for the outgo on account of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations. There are demands from certain quarters, especially armed forces, to improve the pay scales.

The Fertiliser Ministry is also of the view that the subsidies provided for fertilizers were not adequate.

With prices of certain fertilizers on the rise, indications are that the subsidy bill will have to go up substantially, say economists.

More Stories on : Policy | Budget

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Cabinet approves financing education exchange programmes with US

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line