Budget bulging, HRD plans hard to spend heavy

Expecting the two per cent education cess to take the HRD budget beyond an unprecedented Rs 16,000 crore, Arjun Singh’s ministry is hea...

Expecting the two per cent education cess to take the HRD budget beyond an unprecedented Rs 16,000 crore, Arjun Singh’s ministry is heavily concentrating on universal education and mid-day meal system, the two areas likely to get almost 70 per cent of the funds.

State governments have been asked to prepare their education departments for heavy spending; this HRD ministry will be irked if money is returned unutilised.

Already, the Vajpayee government’s interim budget in February increased spending in the education sector. The elementary education sector now has a Plan outlay of Rs 6,004 crore while the higher and secondary education budget (burdened with a substantial non-Plan allocation because of Central commitment on wages) is Rs 5,057 crore.

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It is unlikely that Singh will bring down this already sizeable outlay for the higher and elementary education departments under the HRD. Hence, the additional funding from the cess will come over and above this Central pledge of Rs 11,061 crore.

Arjun Singh has already said the finance ministry was working on the cess. Since the gross revenue receipts of the government stand at around Rs 2,50,000 crore, it is expected that the two per cent cess could realise around Rs 5,000 crore.

The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) — Joshi’s universal education scheme — will continue to receive the UPA Government’s support. Last year, Joshi had drawn up an ambitious plan of Rs 8,100 crore on this scheme alone.

With the framework of the scheme making it imperative for the Centre to spend 75 per cent of the total outlay, Joshi was nowhere close to mustering the necessary Rs 6,000 crore he had committed.

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Ultimately, with almost Rs 800 crore provided by the former finance minister Jaswant Singh, in the winter session as supplementary grant, the total Central spending climbed above Rs 3,000 crore.

Apart from the SSA, the Arjun Singh ministry is gearing up for heavy spending on the mid-day meal scheme. Already, the Centre was under pressure from the Supreme Court to ensure that the countrywide scheme of providing cooked meals in schools did in fact get going. The University Grants Commission is also demanding Rs 5,000 crore, whereby it would help build infrastructure in a large number of colleges and universities throughout the country.