No attempt to cut unproductive expenditure in India's Budget 2010

If the Government was serious about fiscal discipline, it would have done a lot to bring unproductive and wasteful expenses under control. Unfortunately, this has not happened. The total expenditure proposed in the budget is Rs 11,08,749 crores, an increase of 8.6% over the previous year. But more importantly, the unproductive non plan component works out to as much as Rs 735,657 crores. On the other hand, the Plan expenditure amounts to only Rs 373,092 crores.The non plan expenditure was only Rs 608,721 crores in 2008-09. In the next three years( including the forthcoming year), while non plan expenses would have gone up by about Rs 227,000 crores, the plan expenditure would have gone up by less than Rs 100,000 crores.The revenue deficit which is what really needs to be attacked, would have gone up by about Rs 23,000 crores over the same period. In short, the structural part of the deficit is only increasing year after year, notwithstanding the claims of the government.