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Theory of govt elasticity = Profligacy : MSN News

New Delhi: It costs an astronomical Rs 15 lakh crore to run the Government. Yes, you read right, that is the size of the Government's central budget. The Government's wage bill if you include all PSUs and the Railways is Rs 59,143 crore.

You might wonder that this figure appears to be on the higher side. Let me put things into perspective. Air India with 27,000 employees has an annual wage bill of Rs 3609 crore. Scary, you bet. The UPA Government's much touted, much fangled social security safety net NREGA has an annual spend of Rs 40,000 crore, the National Rural Health Mission, another flagship scheme which saw blood and scams in UP recently has a spend of Rs 12,000 crore. Subsidies on oil, fertilizer, food etc are a humungous Rs 190,000 crore. The trade deficit is a blow out number of $185 billion, which translates into zeroes that you can't keep track of. And then the mother of all numbers, one that haunts India's economic policy mavens - the fiscal deficit is Rs 513,000 crore. Is your head spinning with these numbers?