Key Points
Dont confuse it with Statement No 27 in the same document, which lists the schemes and amounts financed through bonds fully serviced by the Union government and through loans from the National Small Savings Fund (NSSF), which have to be repaid by the exchequer..
Note that both the bonds and NSSF loans are treated as part of government debt under the rules governing the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act..
In the next two years, the finance ministry made conscious efforts to reduce the extent of recourse to such bonds and loans and, indeed, ended this practice from 2022-23...
Displaying almost similar prudence and transparency, the Budget document for 2024-25 has introduced for the first time Statement No 27-A, which lists the extra-budgetary resources tapped by select state-owned commercial undertakings, namely the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the Indian Railways Finance Corporation (IRFC)..
Nevertheless, such shifting of the burden of current expenditure onto future finance ministers and governments is a fiscally irresponsible act and even more harmful when done without disclosure...
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