The Centre’s expenditure on subsidies, grants to states and union territories, grants to foreign governments, defence, and pension have grown in the region of 200% or more over the last 10 years, according to finance ministry data.
The total government expenditure has also gone up by over 200% in the corresponding period — 2001-02 to 2010-11.
Subsidy expenditure in the next fiscal is estimated to be around 11% lower than the revised figure for 2009-10, but it has grown by over 272% in the past 10 years. From Rs 31,210 crore in 2001-02, the expenditure on subsidy has increased to Rs 1.16 lakh crore as per 2010-11 estimates.
For the current financial year, the revised estimate is Rs 1.31 lakh crore.The Centre’s spend on grants to state governments and UTs has also come down marginally in the estimates for 2010-11, from that in the current financial year.
While grants to states stood at Rs 46,610 crore in 2009-10, it’s down to 46,001 crore in 2010-11, a decrease of 1.3%. Looking back, however, grants to states totalled only Rs 15,327 crore in 2001-02, translating into an increase of more than 200% over the 10-year period.
Among the other expenditure heads, grants to foreign governments have increased to Rs 1,688 crore in 2010-11, from Rs 1,569 crore in 2009-10, a growth of 7.5%. But a comparison with the 2001-02 figure of Rs 402 crore would show that India’s grants to foreign governments have risen by as much as 320% in the past 10 years.
Defence expenditure has increased 8% from Rs 1.36 lakh crore in 2009-10 to Rs 1.47 lakh crore in 2010-11. However, the increase during the 10-year span is steep, at 171.5% — from Rs 54,266 crore in 2001-02 to Rs 1.47 lakh crore in 2010-11.
Pension is yet another significant head for government expenditure. The pension spend has gone up by just 1.4% from 2009-10 (Rs 42,232 crore) to 2010-11 (Rs 42,840 crore).
But the Centre has increased its expenditure on pensions by 196.7% over the past 10 years — from Rs 14,436 crore to Rs 42,840 crore.
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