Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital. This was stated by Aaron Levenstein, an American professor of business administration.
The finance minister P Chidambaram, has managed to use the bikini formula on the fiscal deficit number of the budget. Fiscal deficit is the difference between what a government earns and what it spends.
The fiscal deficit number that Chidambaram and his team have come up with is as Levenstein said is suggestive, but what it conceals is vital. The fiscal deficit for the year 2012-2013 (the period between 1 April 2012 and March 2013) is likely to stand at Rs 5,20,925 crore or 5.2% of the GDP.
When Pranab Mukherjee had presented the budget last year this number had been projected at Rs 5,13,590 crore or 5.1% of the gross domestic product.
Oil subsidies are an important part of the expenditure of the government. The number at the beginning of the year ( Budget 2012) had been assumed to be at Rs 43,580 crore while the revised figures in UB 2013 is Rs. 96,880 till December.
The oil subsidies when the last budget was presented had been assumed to be at Rs 43,580 crore. The budget presented today has revised this number to Rs 96,880 crore. But even that is not enough to make do for the losses that have been incurred by the oil marketing companies and who need to be compensated for the by the government.
So there is a gap of around Rs 60,000 crore.
The oil subsidies for the year 2013-2014 have been assumed to be at Rs 65,000 crore.