The Hindu Business Line : ‘Govt to exceed borrowing target’

New Delhi, Oct. 21 The Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, said on Tuesday that the Government would borrow more than the amount targeted for 2008-09 in order to finance its additional expenses for this fiscal.

The gross borrowing target for the current fiscal was earlier pegged at about Rs 1,45,000 crore.

“There are only three ways of meeting government expenditure — higher taxes, savings and borrowings. There will be some extra borrowing this year, but I can’t tell you now how much,” Mr Chidambaram told newspersons outside Parliament.

The Lok Sabha on Tuesday gave its nod for additional spend of Rs 2,37,285.84 crore, including net cash outgo of Rs 1,05,613.38 crore.

In his reply to the debate on the first batch of supplementary demand for grants, the Finance Minister told the Lok Sabha that “it is true that we have come with demand for large sums this time”.

“The amounts should not deter us. What is important is why we are making such demands,” he noted.

Of the Rs 1,05,613-crore additional cash spend, about Rs 38,863 crore would be spent in cash towards fertiliser subsidies. He highlighted that no section of Parliament was ready to support any fertiliser price rise.

“The international price of fertilisers has gone up, input prices like that of naphtha have risen, imported prices of fertilisers have gone up. Giving this subsidy is the only way we can support our farmers as we cannot raise prices,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Agriculture Minister, Mr Sharad Pawar, told Lok Sabha that the paddy crop was good and the procurement this year was better than last year. He assured the House that quota allocation for Kerala and other States would be enhanced.

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