Amid a din, the Lok Sabha on Wednesday approved the first batch of supplementary demands authorising the government to spend an additional Rs 23,675 crore, including Rs 17,000 crore for the health ministry, in the current financial year. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced the supplementary demands for grants and relevant appropriation bills.
As per the first batch of supplementary demands for grants tabled in the Lok Sabha by Sitharaman on July 20, although the gross additional expenditure is over Rs 1.87 lakh crore in 2021-22, the actual cash outgo will only be Rs 23,674.81 crore as the remaining spending will be met through savings and higher receipts and recoveries.
A substantial chunk of the total gross spending is towards transfer to states for shortfall in Goods and Services Tax (GST) compensation cess. A total of Rs 1.59 lakh crore would be transferred to states as back-to-back loan in lieu of the GST compensation shortfall. However, this will not entail any cash outgo.
To meet the various COVID-related and other health preparedness expenditure, Rs 16,463 crore extra spending has been earmarked for the department of health and family welfare. An extra Rs 526 crore has been allocated to the department of health research for emergency epidemic preparedness and response.
Approval for Rs 2,050 crore for Ministry of Civil Aviation was sought, which includes Rs 1,872 crore towards loans and advances to Air India for recoupment of advance from the Contingency Fund of India.
The cash outgo also includes Rs 1,100 crore for Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution towards providing assistance to sugar mills for the 2019-20 sugar season.
Further, the Lok Sabha approved the relevant appropriation bills, authorising the government to withdraw funds from the Consolidated Fund of India to meet additional expenditure.
The bills were passed without any debate as the Opposition members continued their protest against Pegasus snooping row and three new farm laws.
| Date: | 29 Jul 2021 |
| Source: | THE ECONOMIC TIMES |
| Reporter: | BUREAU |
| News ID: | 49963 |
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