Primary deficit declines in July

NEW DELHI, OCT 3: Public finances witnessed slight improvement during the month ended August 1999 with the primary deficit declining to Rs 17,564 crore from Rs 20,583 crore recorded at the end of July.

The improvement in public finances is mainly on account of the expenditure compression pursued by the finance ministry. The non-plan expenditure, despite the Kargil conflict has, by and large, remained under control. The non-plan expenditure uptil the end of August 1999 was Rs 74,690 crore, which was 36.1 per cent of the budget estimates. During the corresponding period last year, the government has spend 38.0 per cent of the budgeted amount.

As far as total expenditure was concerned, the government had spend Rs 1,01,754 crore till the end of August. This amounted to 35.8 per cent of the budget estimates. During the corresponding period last year, the Government was slightly liberal with its purse and the total expenses amounted to 35.9 per cent of the budget estimates.

Expenditure management, also had apositive impact on the revenue deficit, which is another important parameter for measuring the health public finance.