Budget 2019: Subsidy bill up 13%, FM Sitharaman banks on oil price dip

Fuel, food and fertiliser remain key focus areas

The government expects its subsidy burden to increase by a little over 13 per cent in the current financial year to Rs 338,949 crore over last year’s revised estimate. The estimates are higher than the interim Budget subsidy of Rs 334,235 crore, though the government continues to underestimate petroleum subsidy numbers, indicating a rollover of dues that it pays to public sector oil marketing companies for selling LPG and kerosene below market rates.
 
More than half of the total subsidy provisioning, amounting to 54 per cent, is going towards food subsidy, which is estimated at Rs 184,220 crore for