The Finance Ministry, on Monday, sought approval from the Parliament to spend around ₹15,000 crore towards fertiliser subsidy. This is part of net additional spending of over ₹1.07 lakh crore, for which the third batch of supplementary demands for grants was tabled in Lok Sabha.

Approval is being sought for gross additional expenditure of over ₹1.58 lakh crore. Of this, proposals involving net cash outgo aggregate to over ₹1.07 lakh crore and gross additional expenditure, matched by savings of ministries/departments or by enhanced receipts, aggregates to over ₹50,946 crore.

For payment towards fertiliser subsidy, the government has sought additional fund to the tune of ₹14,902 crore and ₹13,049 crore for capital infusion in National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development. This also includes ₹5,000 crore as grant in aid.

In addition, the government also sought ₹5,000 crore for recapitalisation of public sector general insurance companies, according to the document. There are four public sector general insurance companies — New India Assurance Company, National Insurance Company Ltd (NICL), United India Insurance Company Ltd (UIICL) and Oriental Insurance Company Ltd (OICL). The government has also sought funds for recapitalisation of Regional Rural Banks, the third and final batch of supplementary demands for grants said.

The total expenditure of the central government for 2021-22 is estimated at ₹37.70 lakh crore (Revised Estimate), which is higher than the Budget Estimate of ₹34.83 lakh crore. For 2022-23, the total expenditure of the central government has been estimated at ₹39.45 lakh crore in Budget 2022-23, representing an increase of 13.3 per cent and 4.6 per cent over Budget Estimate and Revised Estimate of 2021-22, respectively. 

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