The improvement has been mainly on account of reduction in non-Plan expenditure and buoyant revenue realisation during the four months of the financial year.

The expenditure compression exercise, initiated by the finance ministry at the beginning of the financial year, has finally started yielding some tangible dividends. Total non-plan expenditure during the first four months of the fiscal was Rs 57,228 crore as against Rs 60,358 crore during the corresponding period last year.

The Plan expenditure, however, went up marginally from Rs 21,451 crore during April-July 1999 to Rs 23,499 crore during the first four months of the current financial year. Total expenditure during the period worked out to be Rs 80,727 crore as against Rs 81,809 crore during the corresponding period last year.

On the revenue side, buoyancy has continued even in the fourth month of the fiscal. Revenue receipts totalled Rs 42,569 crore as against Rs 33,695 crore during the corresponding period last year, showing more than 26 per cent growth rate. If the buoyancy continued at this pace, government will be able to surpass the revenue target of Rs 1,46,209 crore fixed for the current financial year.

Total receipts during the period worked out to be Rs 45,085 crore as against Rs 35,878 crore during the corresponding period in the previous financial year. The improvement in the government finances was also evident from the fact that revenue deficit during the four-month period was down to Rs 24,995 crore from Rs 34,031 crore during the corresponding period in the previous financial year.

Similarly, the government ended the first four months with a primary deficit of Rs 10,749 crore as Rs 20,583 crore at the end of July 1999. The government proposes to end the fiscal 2000-01 with a primary deficit of 10,009 crore. However, if the buoyancy in revenue collection continued and government manages to raise Rs 10,000 crore from disinvestment and strategic sale of public sector enterprises, the union might end the fiscal with some primary surplus.