Govt to shell out Rs 100 bn more on subsidies

The government will have to shell out over Rs 100 billion more on various subsidies including food and fertilisers during the next fiscal compared to Rs 298.01 billion in Budget estimates of 2001-02 mainly on account of Rs 64.95 billion subsidy on cooking gas and kerosene provided for the first time.

Despite an all-out effort to tighten the belt and hike in fertiliser prices, the 2002-03 Budget presented in Lok Sabha by Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha has pegged the major subsidy outgo at Rs 398.01 billion.

The amount to be doled out as subsidies includes Rs 64.95 billion subsidy on domestic LPG and Kerosene upon dismantling of administrative price mechanism and food and fertilizers subsidies. Oil pool deficit would be partly liquidated by the issue of government bonds to the petroleum companies on March 31, this year.

Food subsidies at a whopping Rs 212 billion, as against Rs 176.12 billion in the current fiscal, would constitute bulk of the total subsidy amount, followed by about Rs 120 billion to be shared by the fertiliser sector.

The subsidy amount for indigenous urea would be Rs 64.99 billion, while the outgo for imported urea would be Rs 5.05 billion.

PTI

YOU MAY ALSO WANT TO READ:
The Rediff Budget Special
The Rail Budget 2002-03
The Economic Survey 2001-02
More Budget Stories
Money