Even as the upcoming Budget is expected to spell out a few mega announcements for the masses, there would be, in all likelihood, very little money spent on the implementation of the programmes during the first three quarters of the next fiscal. Sources close to the Budget-making process said that a lot of time will have to be devoted towards preparatory work for big-ticket programmes like National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG) and higher-education projects such as setting up of IITs and IIMs. The gross budgetary support (GBS) for annual Plan 2008-09 is likely to be around Rs 2.40-lakh crore, which is Rs 54-lakh crore less than what was suggested by the Planning Commission.
?The big-ticket programme for the next fiscal is the NREG, which has been extended to cover all districts of the country. However, very little amount of money is likely to be spent during the year on the implementation of the programme as most of the time would be spent on preparatory work like getting the muster rolls and projects ready,? sources said, adding that it is only in the last quarter of the fiscal that funds would be utilised for the employment programme.
The government is yet to kick-off the project of setting up AIIMS-like premier medical institutes across the country, though an announcement on the same was made two years ago. The official pointed out that the government has spent most of the time in preparatory work. Even setting up of seven more IIMs and three new IITs with an investment of Rs 5,000 crore in the next five years would take time to get started due to the same reason.
The Commission had sought a GBS of Rs 2.94-lakh crore for the fiscal, but the finance ministry is expected to provide something between Rs 2,40,000-2,50,000 crore for the annual Plan. A GBS of Rs 2.40-lakh crore would be 17% higher than the 2006-07 GBS of Rs 2,05,100 crore but lower than 19% growth in budgetary support provided in current fiscal. The proposed GBS, however, is not enough to meet the funding requirements of all existing and new programmes in full.
The Commission is likely to get the additional provision of Rs 10,000 crore to be released during the course of the next fiscal to meet additional funding requirements of the flagship programmes.