In a bid to push industrial development, Government would invest more than half of its central plan outlay of Rs 1,47,893 crore (Rs 1478.93 billion) during 2003-04 only on energy, transport and communication, while, the share of agriculture and rural development has come down.

The central plan outlay has been pegged at Rs 1,47,893 crore (Rs 1478.93 billion) for 2003-04, over eight per cent higher than the revised estimates for the current fiscal, as per the Union budget presented by Finance Minister Jaswant Singh here on Friday.

The increased plan outlay has been targeted mainly at energy and transport whose share in the total outlay is expected to increase to over Rs 72,000 crore (Rs 720 billion) from Rs 64,000 crore (Rs 640 billion) this fiscal while share of agriculure and rural development has declined to around Rs 12,000 crore (Rs 120 billion) from Rs 16,000 crore (Rs 160 billion) in the current fiscal.

To support the hike in central plan outlay, the budget support has been accordingly increased to Rs 72,152 crore (Rs 721.52 billion), nearly six per cent higher than the Rs 68,219 crore (Rs 682.19 billion) revised estimates for 2002-03.

Contribution to plan from internal and external budgetary resources of public enterprises has been pegged at Rs 75,741 crore (Rs 757.41 billion) for 2003-04 against a revised estimate of Rs 68,648 crore (Rs 686.48 billion) in the current fiscal.

Outlay for agriculture has been hiked by nearly Rs 700 crore (Rs 7 billion) to Rs 3,866 crore (Rs 38.6 billion) in 2003-04 compared to a revised estimate of Rs 3,219 crore (Rs 32.19 billion) in the current fiscal. The outlay is, however, only Rs 100 crore higher than the budget estimates of 2002-03.

PTI