The current revenue is considerably higher than the budget which is a good thing, finance secretary TV Somanathan said in an interview with CNBC-TV18. He added that they are expecting revenues to be above budget estimates.

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"However, there is also a considerable increase in several of the expenditure items, including the food subsidy. There are others also like increase in the fertilizer subsidy and increase in payments on account of arrears to the export incentive schemes like MEIS and SEIS which have been announced," he said.

Hence, he said that some analysts are underestimating the expenditure side. In case of a revenue increase, there is an expenditure increase.

On the tax revenue gap on the telecom moratorium, Somanathan said that there is a risk on the non-tax revenue side.

"So, we will see some decline in the non-tax revenue," he stated.

Somanathan also spoke on India's divestment plans.

He said: "We have got many minor divestment transactions, plus Air India. We will have to see what other transactions take place."

Earlier this week, the government had sold debt-laden Air India to Tata Group for Rs 18,000 crore. The airline, which had sowed the seeds of aviation in India had been continuously incurring losses all these years.

He also said bank privatisation will be pushed to next fiscal with banking law amendments likely in the Winter session of parliament.

On the vaccine budget, he said that the government will ‘probably’ achieve its target of vaccinating the adult population ‘pretty soon’ but it may cross the budget of Rs 35,000 crore. He said the government has made commitments for the purchase of vaccines, exceeding Rs 36,000 crore.

(Edited by : Anshul)

First Published:Oct 13, 2021 9:07 AM IST