The Centre has utilised Rs 9,48,506 crore as part of its capital expenditure in FY24 as against revised estimate (RE) of Rs 9,49,555 crore, which account for 99.9 per cent of the RE government data showed on Friday.
Spending picked up in September 2023 and once again in March 2024 marking the end of monsoon and the onset of General elections respectively.
India raised capex by 42 per cent in FY22 and 24 per cent in FY23. This was trimmed to 11.1% for FY25 in the interim budget from the budgeted capex in FY24, which was up 35.9 per cent from previous year, in line with the government’s fiscal consolidation glide path. The Centre intends to narrow its fiscal deficit to 5.1 per cent in FY25 from 5.8 per cent in FY24 (RE).
“Rest of the decade, private capex will be an important driver of growth and job creation,” sources told ET on Friday.
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Earlier this week, ET also reported that India could increase its FY25 capital expenditure outlay by 8-10 per cent from the Rs 11.11 lakh crore allocated in the vote on account when the full budget is presented thanks to better-than-expected tax revenue and a record surplus transfer by the RBI to the government.
“Both tax and non-tax revenue are expected to be better,” a senior official told ET. “Additional surplus transfer from RBI provides enough headroom to spend more.”
India, on Friday, reported its gross domestic product (GDP) growth at 7.8 per cent on an annual basis in the last quarter (Q4) of the FY24 . The Centre now estimates the overall growth rate of FY24 to be 8.2 per cent
“We expect GDP growth at around 7 per cent in FY25,” stated Rajani Sinha, Chief Economist at CareEdge. “This is based on expectations of improvement in consumption trends as inflation moderates and agricultural sector performance improves. Given the increased intent to invest by the private sector, we expect a pickup in their capex cycle in the coming quarters.”
(With inputs from ET Bureau)
