NEW DELHI: The government is likely to roll over the petroleum subsidy worth Rs 13,000 crore to the next financial year. “The petroleum subsidy has shot the budget estimate. The ministry has proposed to roll over the bill to the next financial year,” a senior official with the finance ministry told TNIE.
The government had earmarked an overall petroleum subsidy of Rs 24,933 crore for the last fiscal, a mere 1.93 per cent increase over Revised Estimate of Rs 24,460.48 allocated for 2017-2018. However, as against a Budget allocation of Rs 24,933 crore during 2018-19, the estimated requirement is about Rs 38,000 crore. This has lead to a carry-forward of Rs 13,000 crore to be paid to oil companies.
The official said the high subsidy bill was due to a steep hike in crude price. “The global crude oil price was much higher than expected. This had inflated the oil bills on subsidy.”
The total subsidy expenditure rose to Rs 20,672 crore during the first six months itself this fiscal, as compared to Rs 11,352 crore incurred a year ago.
This is not the first Bill to be rolled over. As the Fertilizer Subsidy Bill exceeded by Rs 12,000 crore, the Centre approved special banking arrangement for Rs 10,000 crore as subsidies in FY 19.