CENTRE SEEKS HOUSE NOD FOR ₹23,675 CRORE EXTRA SPENDING

NEW DELHI: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday sought Parliament nod to spend a net additional ₹23,675 crore, including ₹17,000 crore for the health ministry, in the current financial year.

As per the first batch of supplementary demands for grants tabled in the Lok Sabha by Sitharaman, although the gross additional expenditure is over ₹1.87 lakh crore in 2021-22, the actual cash outgo will only be ₹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 compensation cess. ₹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.

“As the back-to-back loan are to be met from equivalent capital receipts, the ... expenditure will not entail any additional cash outgo,” the supplementary demands for grants said. To meet the various Covid-related and other health preparedness, ₹16,463 crore extra spending has been earmarked for the department of health and family welfare. An extra ₹526 crore has been given to the department of health research for emergency epidemic preparedness and response.

Approval for ₹2,050 crore for ministry of civil aviation is being sought, which includes ₹1,872 crore towards loans and advances to Air India for recoupment of advance from Contingency Fund of India.

The cash outgo also includes ₹1,100 crore for ministry of consumer affairs, food and public Distribution towards providing assistance to sugar mills for 2019-20 sugar season.

Besides, nod for spending an additional ₹1,222 crore under the head Department of Pharmaceuticals has been sought towards waiver of government loan.