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Central Government Expenditure<br>Concentration of capex shoots up in last quarter of 2001-02
By Dr M.S. Kapadia
The trend of bunching capital expenditure in the last quarter of the fiscal year continued in 2001-02. Concentration of capex in 2001-02 shot up to 43 per cent as against 34 per cent in the preceding year. A perusal of the monthly data released by the Controller General of Accounts shows that capex in March alone accounted for 30 per cent of the annual spending. Both plan and non-plan capex increased sharply in March 2002.
Capex, placed at Rs 60,594 crore, constituted 17 per cent of total spending by the government during 2001-02. This expenditure comprises capital disbursements, capital investment in public enterprises and loans mostly for investment spending. It is this segment of government expenditure which matters for capital formation at the macro level, as also the EPC contractors etc., who depend on contracts from government.
If we examine the trend by quarters, the first and second quarters consttituted 18 per cent each of the total capex for 2001-02. This marks a decline from 21 per cent in the first and second quarters in the preceding two years. The third quarter saw around 20 per cent disbursements, down from 22 per cent in 2000-01.
More evenly spread of revenue expenditure
Unevenness in total Central government disbursements in March was reduced from 20 per cent in 1999-00 to 18 per cent in 2001-02, due to relatively better phasing out of revenue account disbursements. The last quarter saw 33 per cent of yearly revenue account disbursements, with the second and third quarters witnessing around 24 per cent spend each.
The last quarter has seen 35-37 per cent of the total annual spending in the last three fiscal years. The first quarter saw subdued spending of 18-20 per cent yearly spend, with the disbursements picking up over subsequent quarters.
For more details please refer to Projectmonitor Prinit Version.
Central Government Expenditure<br>Concentration of capex shoots up in last quarter of 2001-02
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