NEW DELHI: Finance minister Yashwant Sinha Jan 11 announced that the budget deficit at the end of November1990 stood at Rs.130 billion and declared that the new government had started the process of correcting the serious fiscal imbalance.
Making a statement on the budget deficit in the Lok Sabha Sinha said this deficit on November 301990 represents a disquieting picture of shortfalls in revenue receipts while expenditure continued to be incurred as budgeted.
The finance minister said the actual budget deficit at the end of the first eight months of the current financial year was Rs.130 billion as against Rs.130.82 billion in the preceding financial year.
He said in addition to shortfall in revenue there has been underfunding of the requirements for the farm loans waiver scheme.
The Gulf crisis had also led to deterioration in the fiscal situation because the oil coordination committee (OCC) surpluses would not materialize.
The minister said the burden on account of fertilizer subsidies would increase the cost of repatriation of Indian citizens from Kuwait would have to be borne by the exchequer there will be a shortfall in revenue attributable to the squeeze on non-oil imports and contraction of output.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 18, 1991
