Mukherjee concerned over mounting subsidy bill
09 Feb 2012
Faced with the prospect of a less than expected revenue mop-up coupled with rising fiscal deficit, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee today said he was "losing sleep" over mounting subsidy bill, which might cross budget estimate by Rs1 lakh crore in 2011-12.
As finance minister, he said, when he thought of the scale of subsidies he had to provide for, he lost his sleep. The finance minister is engaged in the process of firming the budget for 2012-13 that would be tabled in the Lok Sabha on 16 March.
According to the government, it had earlier said that its subsidy bill was likely to increase by over Rs1 lakh crore, over and above the original estimate of Rs1.34 lakh crore, on account of higher outlay towards fertiliser, food and oil.
In view of the moderate growth in revenue collection and poor receipts from disinvestment on one hand as also the rising subsidy on the other, the finance minister would have a tough time balancing the budget figures.
The fiscal deficit, which he had proposed to bring down from 4.7 per cent to 4.6 per cent of GDP in 2011-12, was expected to in the range of 5.6 per cent.
According to the tax figures released, the government had collected Rs6.63 lakh crore up to January and would fail to achieve the Rs 9.32 lakh crore target for the fiscal.
