New Delhi: India is likely to lift its rural welfare spending by 16 per cent for the fiscal year beginning April, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi tries to woo the farm vote ahead of a general election due by May this year. on Friday , In its interim budget, the government is set to earmark about 1.3 trillion rupees ($18.25 billion) for the Ministry of Rural Development, up from 1.12 trillion rupees in the current fiscal year, said the sources with direct knowledge of budget discussions.

However,  Interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal is likely to announce the improved allocation in his budget presentation to Lok Sabha. Modi's government is under pressure to step up support for the countryside, where more than two-thirds of India's 1.3 billion people live. Farm incomes have been devastated in the past year by low crop prices and rising costs, and voters' concerns about the government's rural policies was evident in the loss of key state elections by Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party late last year.

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On Monday, the leader of the main opposition Congress party, Rahul Gandhi, promised to provide the poor with a minimum income if his party wins the election. The BJP has dismissed Gandhi's promise as an unaffordable attention-grabber. The sources said that the plans for rural development may require an additional allocation of funds in a full budget announcement that this government would likely make in July if it is re-elected,

The government is expected to give about 600 billion rupees for the job guarantee programme for the 2019-20 fiscal year, 9 per cent more than the previous year,