Government to overshoot expenditure estimate

September 25th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Humanity went into debt Friday, having used up all that the earth's natural systems can produce this year, according to data from Global Footprint Network (GFN), a research organisation that measures the natural resources we have and we use. A GFN spokesperson said over e-mail that by this Friday, people had already demanded from the earth all the ecological services it can provide in the whole year -- from filtering the main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide to producing the raw materials for food.

September 20th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Companies in the telecom and auto sectors have witnessed robust growth in turnover despite not increasing their advertisement budgets, according to the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocam), an industry lobby. In a study titled "Cost-Benefit Analysis of Advertisement Campaigns", Assocham said: "The amount spent on the marketing expenses in proportion to the sales has undergone a substantial decline in 2008-09." However, it added that Indian telecom and auto companies, "despite spending less on their advertisement and promotion campaigns, were able to increase their sales volume significantly".

September 19th, 2009 BANGALORE - Austerity measures the government has introduced are not at the cost of security for top leaders, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee clarified here Saturday. "So far as the austerity measures are concerned, it is clearly stipulated that it will not compromise the security measures to be adopted by the government to protect some individuals, particularly those who are more vulnerable and protected by the SPG (Special Protection Group)," Mukherjee told reporters here.

August 31st, 2009 NEW DELHI - India's official auditor has said that Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries is reluctant to share information about its books of accounts for an audit of the Krishna-Godavari gas fields, and has called for clarity on the issue of access. In a letter to the petroleum ministry dated Aug 26, Principal Director of Audit K.R.

August 5th, 2009 MUMBAI - The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group Wednesday alleged conflict of interest in naming the two experts who evaluated and validated the overstated capital cost of Krishna-Godavari gas fields, awarded to Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries. Reacting to the comments by the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons Tuesday, the group said both the independent expert P.

July 11th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Saturday sought to allay apprehensions that high government borrowings to fund welfare and infrastructure programmes will crowd out credit to industry and said loans at competitive prices will continue to be made available to India Inc. "We will meet the requirements of the private sector from the market," the finance minister told reporters here after a post-budget meeting with the top brass of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) here.

July 6th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday said that the fiscal deficit as a percentage of GDP is projected at 6.8 per cent as compared to 2.5 per cent of the Budget Estimates (BE) for 2008-09 and 6.2 per cent as per the provisional accounts of 2008-09. Presenting the General Budget for 2009-10 in Lok Sabha on Monday, Mukherjee assured that government would address the issue properly to come back to the path of fiscal consolidation, as this level of deficit was a matter of concern.

March 4th, 2009 JAMMU - Jammu and Kashmir Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather Tuesday presented the vote-on-account in the state assembly with a proposed expenditure of Rs.95.03 billion (Rs.9,503 crore) for the first five months of next fiscal. The minister has also revised estimates for 2008-09 to Rs.190.77 billion against the budget estimate of Rs.184.43 billion.

March 4th, 2009 BEIJING - China plans to increase its defence budget by 14.9 percent in 2009, a spokesman said here Wednesday. The planned defence budget is 480.686 billion yuan ($70 billion), a rise of 62.482 billion yuan from last year, Li Zhaoxing, spokesman for the second session of the 11th National People's Congress (NPC), told a press conference.

February 15th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Saying that the Mumbai terror attacks had given 'an entirely new dimension' to cross-border terrorism, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee raised the allocation for defence 34 percent to Rs.1,41,703 crore (Rs.1.417 trillion) in the interim budget for 2009-10 he presented in the Lok Sabha Monday. The total revised expenditure for 2008-09 was Rs.1,14,600 crore against the allocation of Rs.1,05,600 crore, said Mukherjee, who was presenting the budget on behalf of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is recovering from coronary bypass surgery.

February 15th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Holding a 'threshold has been crossed' with the Mumbai terror attacks, the Indian government hiked the allocation for defence by 34 percent to Rs.141,703 crore (Rs.1.417 trillion) in the interim budget for 2009-10 External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee presented in the Lok Sabha Monday. The allocation is nearly 15 percent of the total interim budget of Rs.953,231 crore for the fiscal beginning April 1.

February 15th, 2009 NEW DELHI - India's defence expenditure for 2009-10 has been hiked to Rs.1.41 trillion, acting Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said Monday in the Lok Sabha while presenting the interim budget for the fiscal beginning April 1. The allocation for 2008-09 was Rs.1.05 trillion.

February 15th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The major part of the government's revenue comes from borrowings. Consequently, the biggest chunk of expenditure is on interest payments.

January 28th, 2009 NEW DELHI - State-run gas utility GAIL India has scaled down its capital expenditure to Rs.55 billion (Rs.5,500 crore) for 2009-10 after the Planning Commission objected to the higher estimate prepared earlier, the company said here Thursday. 'Our capex was originally Rs.7,000 crore (Rs.70 billion), which we submitted to the Planning Commission for approval.

January 19th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Supreme Court Tuesday began a second round of hearing of arguments on a lawsuit against the allocation of around Rs.16 billion annually to parliamentarians to help them undertake developmental activities in their constituencies. A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice K.G.