As the year comes to an end, the RE estimate of government expenditure has increased to Rs 34.50 lakh crore within the year 2021, as against the BE estimate of Rs 30.42 lakh crore, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in her budget speech on Monday.

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However, we have maintained the quality of expenditure, FM said as she announced that capex estimate in RE is 4.39 lakh crore, as against 4.12 lakh crore in the BE stage.

She attributed this increase in expenditure to the government's efforts to revive demand after the COVID-19 outbreak. After the outbreak, the government ramped up its spending to revive demand.

As a result of weak inflow due to the COVID-19 pandemic and outflow in the form of stimulus packages, government expenditure increased over its BE estimates. Unlike other countries, FM said, we opted for medium-sized packages so we could re-calibrate them according to the progress.

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First Published:Feb 1, 2021 12:44 PM IST