Key government schemes get extra budgetary support
NEWDELHI: The government plans to boost the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY-Urban), aimed at providing affordable housing to the urban poor, and the Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA), which finances the creation of capital assets in educational institutions, with extra budgetary support (EBS) of ~25,000 crore and ~37,395 crore, respectively.
The finance ministry has approved extra budgetary resources (EBR) for these key infrastructure schemes, said joint secretary, budget, Arvind Srivastava.
The extra budgetary support means capital outlay (including spending on infrastructure) in 2019-2020 will be 8.2% more than in 2017-18.
The extra budgetary resources for PMAY in financial year 2018-19 was ~25,000 crore, and for HEFA, ~28,000 crore.
“The process of approval of EBR is institutionalized through constitution of EBR screening committee that approves raising of EBR based on need, expenditure pattern and prevailing market conditions,” Srivastava said.
PMAY (U) is aimed at providing housing for all by 2022 and is being implemented from June 2015. It provides central assistance to urban local bodies and other implementing agencies through states and union territories for on-site rehabilitation of existing slum dwellers using land as a resource with private participation, credit-linked subsidy, affordable housing, and subsidy for beneficiary-led individual house construction. Under the PMAY(U), the total investment involved is ~3.56 lakh crore.
HEFA is a joint venture of the ministry of human resource development (MHRD) and Canara Bank for financing creation of capital assets in premier educational institutions in India.
The extra budgetary numbers will take overall capital outlay earmarked for financial year 2019-20 to ~6.46 lakh crore including ~4.63 lakh crore of EBS. “Gross budgetary support on capital outlay increased to ~1,82, 708 lakh crore showing a 16% increase over the figure of ~1,57, 213 lakh crore of FY 2018-19,” Srivastava said.
The comparable figures for 2018-19 were ~5.97 lakh crore inclusive of ~1.57 lakh crore of gross budgetary support and ~4.40 lakh crore of internal and EBR, according to the finance ministry (this also included IEBR for PMAY, HEFA and ~5,700 crore for Digital India).
“We have not yet approved the IEBR for Digital India till now and hence it has not been included this year,” Srivastava said. This year’s number, therefore, marks an increase of 8.19%, and doesn’t include IEBR for Digital India.
Laying emphasis on infrastructure development, finance minister Piyush Goyal, in the interim budget for 2019-20, announced that the government would build infrastructure for making India a $10 trillion economy by 2030.
This will comprise next generation infrastructure of roads, railways, seaports, airports, urban transport, gas and electric transmission and inland waterways, Goyal said in the budget speech.
THE EXTRA BUDGETARY SUPPORT MEANS CAPITAL OUTLAY IN 2019-2020 WILL BE 8.2% MORE THAN IN 2017-18