Public expenditure is an important aspect which is incurred by the public authority (central, state and local government). Public expenditure is required for the protection of the citizens of a country, for satisfying social needs or collective needs and for promoting social and economic welfare of the people in a country.

Classification of public expenditure is as under:

(1) Revenue expenditure : It is the expenditure of the government to carry out day-to-day functions. It is recurring in nature. It does not create any assets to government It consists of administrative expenditure, interest payment, pensions and salaries to government employees, etc.

(2) Capital expenditure : It refers to the expenditure of the government for the development of a country. It consists of huge investment in different developmental projects, repayment of government loans, investment on land, building, machines, etc. It is non-recurring in nature.

(3) Developmental expenditure : The expenditure which results in generation of employment and price stability, it is known as developmental expenditure.

It consists of expenditure on education, social welfare, industrial development, etc. It leads to an increase in production. It is s productive in nature.

(4) Non-developmental expenditure : It is that government expenditure which does not yield any direct productive impact on the economy. It is mainly in form of expenses on administration costs, war expenses, etc. It is unproductive in nature. It is observed that, since last 30 years, there is a tremendous growth in the total public expenditure of a country because modern government performs many functions for the social and economic development of a country.