While Parliament is in recess various Standing Committees start examining expenditure proposals of ministries in the form of Demand for Grants. My hardworking & brilliant colleagues @PRSLegislative analysed 13 ministries that together comprise 53% of govt expenditure. A thread..
Defence: expenditure on Army pensions now exceeds salaries. Way ahead of expenditure on capital outlay and modernisation. More at: bit.ly/2OYVq5p
Home Affairs: The increase in the budget is mainly due to devolution to Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh as now being UTs their budget flows through MHA. Marginal increase of 2% in the budget for central armed police forces, despite a 11% vacancy. More at: bit.ly/2OYVq5p
Agriculture: Largest spend PM-KISAN that provides 6000/yr as direct cash transfer to farmers. Revised estimate for 2019-20 is Rs 54,370 cr down from budgeted amount of Rs 75,000 cr. Targeted to cover 14.5 cr beneficiaries, 8.9 cr covered so far. More at: bit.ly/2SyekT4
Food: main expense item is food subsidy through PDS. Revised estimate for food subsidy is Rs 108,688 cr, 41% less than 184,220 cr budgeted. Reason- FCI not been paid for subsidy & has been asked to borrow funds. Trend to continue the next year. More at: bit.ly/2UVunMk
Rural Development: Administers some large schemes such as MGNREGS, PMAY-G (rural housing) and PMGSY (rural roads). The allocation for MGNREGS is 13% lower next year, while that for PMGSY is up by 39%. More at: bit.ly/2uGnNP4
Education: highest expenditure items on elementary & secondary education, and Mid-Day meals. NSSO data shows drop in attendance in higher classes. Enrolment has improved in secondary and higher secondary levels, as well in higher education. More at: bit.ly/2HqDFYB
Health: largest programmes are National Health Mission and Ayushman Bharat - AB gets Rs. 6400 crore this year. 15th Finance Com study estimates depending on demand total costs (centre + states) for 2019 between Rs 28,000 cr and Rs 74,000 cr. More at: bit.ly/31WqGHw
Road/Transport/Highways: largest expenditure items are building roads and bridges, and NHAI. Consistent shortfall in the target for construction of national highways – e.g., 10,855 km constructed in 2018-19, compared to the targeted 15,000km. More at: bit.ly/2Sus8h6
Telecom: large bill due to MTNL and BSNL restructuring. And the receipts side show a large uptick – possibly due to the AGR arrears. Also, USO Fund has collected Rs 70,000 crore in the last 10 years but utilised only 32,000 crore. More at: bit.ly/2wfWJGx
Railways: Finances continue to be under stress. Operating ratio is 97.4%. Salaries & pensions constitute 66% of costs, with pension bill set to rise. Over dependence on a few bulk freight items i.e coal (30% of total revenue) is a risk factor. More at: bit.ly/38HCMHj
Housing & Urban Affairs: Of the Rs 50,400 cr budget next year, Rs 20,000 crore (40%) is for metro projects. AMRUT and Smart Cities together get a further 27% of the budget. More at: bit.ly/2SwnKOU
Petroleum & Natural Gas: abt 87% of its expenditure is on LPG subsidy. PM Ujjwala Yojana for LPG get Rs 1118 cr this yr, 70% down from revised estimates of last yr. CAG observes lack of sustained usage of cylinders released under the scheme. More at: bit.ly/38rAPyp
Jal Shakti Ministry: largest allocations to Jal Jeevan Mission (Rs 11500 cr) thats aims to provide adequate & safe drinking water to rural population and Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) that targets universal sanitation coverage and cleanliness. More at: bit.ly/2UVvWtG
