The finance ministry today presented its third and final supplementary demand for grants for the current fiscal, involving a net cash outgo of Rs 6,550.77 crore, largely to meet the cost of an additional food subsidy bill of Rs 3,871.35 crore.
This will take the fiscal deficit to almost 6 per cent of the GDP from the revised estimate of 5.7 per cent announced by finance minister Yashwant Sinha barely a fortnight ago. The fiscal deficit target for 2001-02 was 4.7 per cent of the GDP.
The revised estimate for expenditure for the current fiscal now stands at Rs 370,986 crore, while the fiscal deficit has climbed to Rs 138,721 crore. The revenue deficit has also risen from Rs 91,733 crore to Rs 98,283 crore for 2001-02.
With an additional cash outgo of Rs 3,871.35 crore to defray the FCI
