The finance ministry has imposed restrictions on expenditure by other ministries, which indicates a tight fiscal position of the government in the current financial year.

Given the fiscal position of the government it has lowered the spending cap for the last quarter and the last month of the fiscal. It has asked all other ministries to cut down expenditures to 25 percent of the Budget estimate (BE) as against the benchmark of 33 percent.

This means in the month of January-February, the expenditures should not exceed 15 percent of the BE as against 18 percent and for the month of March, it should not exceed 10 percent from 15 percent of Budget estimate.

This cap in expenditure could likely lead to savings of anywhere between Rs 1.5-2 lakh crore of the budget, which is not really a very big number. Moreover, the finance ministry said any expenditure via reallocation of savings would need prior parliament approval.