8th pay commission
The government has made a big disclosure regarding the 8th Pay Commission. Expenditure Secretary V Vulnam said on Tuesday that the Eighth Pay Commission has just started its work and is in the initial stage, hence no provision has been made in the budget for it at present. He also said that the debt-GDP ratio has been adopted but it does not mean that we will leave the fiscal deficit. The fiscal deficit is important and we will continue to keep an eye on it. Vulnam said that no provision has been made in the budget keeping in mind the Eighth Pay Commission. The reason for this is that the Eighth Pay Commission has just been constituted. Members are starting their work.
He said they are also involving officials for assistance. So this is a very early stage. As of now we have not made any calculations about its impact and other aspects, which we will know when the time comes. It is noteworthy that the government constituted the Eighth Pay Commission in January. The commission has been given 18 months to finalize the report to analyze the wage structure, economic condition and demands of the employees. The recommendations of the commission can be implemented from January 1, 2026.
debt-gdp ratio
Responding to a question, Vulnam said that both debt-GDP ratio and fiscal deficit are important and both are interrelated. We have said that we will keep an eye on the loan-GDP ratio…. But fiscal deficit and debt-GDP ratio are interrelated. Therefore, we will also keep calculating the fiscal deficit. He said that but overall our guiding principle is the debt-GDP ratio. For this, we have set a target that by 2030 we will bring it to 50 percent with a variation of one percent. The fiscal deficit figure is also very important, we will keep a constant eye on it. The government proposed the debt-GDP ratio to be 55.6 percent in 2026-27, which is 56.1 percent in the current financial year.
What was said about the internship scheme?
In response to a question related to the allocation in the budget regarding the internship scheme, the Secretary did not give any figures and said that it is a very good scheme and perhaps the pace of it may be slowed down. But these are innovative schemes to some extent in which industry is also a partner. We have to move forward together. Therefore, the Ministry is correcting it and is in talks with the industry and concerned parties. He also said that I am confident that now it will accelerate. People will see its benefits and it will be successful.
fiscal deficit reduction
In response to a question related to increase in total expenditure and reduction in fiscal deficit in the budget, Vulnam said that whatever figures are there in the budget are real. We have investigated very carefully. First of all, we have examined the expenditure budget side very carefully. This is to meet the prescribed requirements. Again, the GDP estimates have also been prepared very carefully. We looked at the first advance estimates and growth projections released by the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation.
And in fact, this is the growth estimate, which is a very realistic estimate, he said. Now the GDP at market price that we are estimating for 2026-27 is a very realistic figure. We consider this to be realistic, not over-ambitious, nor over-cautious. And we must be able to accomplish this.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented a total budget of Rs 53.5 lakh crore for 2026-27, which is 7.7 percent more than the current financial year. Whereas the target of fiscal deficit was reduced to 4.3 percent which is estimated to be 4.4 percent in the current financial year. Capital expenditure was increased to Rs 12.2 lakh crore from Rs 11.2 lakh crore in the last financial year.