News Detail

The Road Transport and Highways Ministry has sought INR 30,000-35,000 crore from the Finance Ministry as Budgetary support to implement various projects. This is a sharp jump from the INR 22,890 crore the Ministry had got as gross budgetary support (GBS) in 2013-14, according to revised estimates data.

During last fiscal, the National Highways Authority of India had raised INR 8,000-9,000 crore through market borrowings. This took the total money (Government support plus borrowings) for the sector to INR 30,890 crore during the fiscal, according to an official.

“The GBS for last year included around INR 12,000 crore raised from the fuel cess, and INR 5,000 crore through toll receipts. In effect, the incremental tax-payers money was INR 6,000 crore,” said the official. The cess on fuel and the toll revenues are counted as gross budgetary support as they accrue to the Consolidated Fund of India and are then routed back to the road sector.

Moreover, the Ministry, while seeking a minimum of INR 30,000 crore, has sought an assurance from its Finance counterpart that it would at least enhance the amount that will be made available in the next two years. “Based on the assurance for higher funds next year, we can award projects this year. A large share of the expenditure of what we award this year will actually come up next year,” said the official.

The demand has a rationale at the macro level. In the 12{+t}{+h} Five-Year Plan, the Government had set an outlay of INR 1,44,000 crore for the road sector. Of this, about INR 38,000 crore came in in the first two years, leaving INR 1,06,000 crore to be spent in the remaining three years. Split into three years, the amount is around INR 35,000 crore. Though the Ministry has not yet finalised the target for building roads in the current fiscal, about 1,400 km of projects have been awarded in April and May. If this level of implementation were to continue throughout the year, the Road Ministry can award up to 8,000 km.

Likely roadblocks

However, there may be slippages due to various reasons — including lack of land available for bidding of projects, or lack of response for public-private partnership projects.

Source-On Request