Budget’s highways allocation may jump by 35% for 2022-23 – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman may raise the budgetary allocation for the highways sector by 35% to Rs 1. 8 lakh crore in 2022-23 as she signals a boost to capital expenditure, especially for infrastructure creation, in a bid to rev up the economy.
At the same time, the Centre is expected to reduce the NHAI borrowing limit to Rs 20,000-25,000 crore against the current ceiling of up to Rs 65,000 crore from Internal and Extra-Budgetary Resources (IEBR) and the agency, raising around Rs 40,000 crore this year.

may be cut

Sources said the government is likely to allocate more Budget than provisioning more borrowing by the highways authority, which is already facing a huge debt burden. The NHAI’s debt was around Rs 3. 4 lakh crore till December and nearly onethird of the total debt was spent in land acquisition.
“There is a high possibility that the government will provide more funds from its kitty instead of allowing NHAI to raise more debt, which is expensive in the long run,” a source told TOI.
Capital expenditure has been a major thrust for the Modi government this year and it is expected to retain that focus, hoping that it will generate demand for cement, steel and related products, while also using up capacity in factories and creating jobs.
Among the infrastructure space, roads have led the spending spree, with additional funds expected to be allocated in the revised estimates, taking the allocation for the current year from Rs 1. 2 lakh crore to Rs1. 35 lakh crore. Going by the estimates, the investment in the highways sector has increased almost fourfold during the last seven years — from Rs 51,000 crore to around Rs 2 lakh crore in 2021-22.
The government expenditure has also gone up by more than four times during this period — from Rs 24,000 crore to Rs 1 lakh crore. Investment in road sectors has a multiplier effect on the economy by creating employment opportunities.

For all the latest business News Click Here 

Read original article here

Denial of responsibility! TechAI is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.