Union Budget 2017: FM provides for 25.4% higher capital expenditure in FY'18

New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday pegged the capital expenditure in 2017-18 at Rs 3.09 lakh crore, up 25.4 per cent from the Budget estimates of Rs 2.47 lakh crore for the current fiscal.

Effectively, the capital expenditure estimated in the Budget for next fiscal is 10.7 per cent higher than revised estimates of Rs 2.79 lakh crore for the current fiscal.

The government has done away with the distinction of Plan and Non-Plan expenditure from April 1, 2017. A new classification of capital and revenue expenditures has been introduced in the General Budget 2017-18.

The expenditure for creating assets have been classified as capital while the recurring expenditures like salaries, power bills and other charges have been termed as revenue in common parlance.

"Plan, non-plan classification of expenditure are done away with in the Budget for 2017-18 to give a holistic picture," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in his Budget speech in Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

Jaitley pegged the total expenditure next fiscal at Rs 21.47 lakh crore compared to the Budget and revised estimates of Rs 19.78 lakh crore and Rs 20.14 lakh crore for the current fiscal respectively.

For the first time, a consolidated Outcome Budget, covering all Ministries and Departments, is being laid along with other Budget documents, it said.