The Finance Ministry has sought an additional cash expenditure of around ₹24,000 crore from Parliament, with focus on health.

The amount of ₹23,674.81 crore will be over and above the full Budget expenditure of ₹34.83 lakh crore. With this, the size of the Budget is now over ₹35-lakh crore. Considering the nominal GDP size of over ₹222.87-lakh crore for the current fiscal, fresh cash outgo is likely to add 10 basis points to the fiscal deficit of 6.8 per cent, set in the Budget for the current fiscal.

In the first Supplementary Demands for Grants (SDG) laid in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, the Ministry said the approval is being sought to authorise gross additional expenditure of ₹1,87,202.41 crore — involving net cash outgo aggregating to ₹23,674.81 crore and gross additional expenditure, matched by savings of the Ministries/Departments or by enhanced receipts/recoveries aggregating to ₹1,63,526.88 crore.

SDG is normally presented in each of the three sessions of Parliament — Monsoon, Winter and Budget — when the amount authorised for the current financial year is insufficient, and the need arises for additional expenditure on an existing service or a new service not contemplated in the annual financial statement for that year, and for recouping the Contingency Fund Advance. Article 115 of the Constitution provides for SDG.

In the SDG for current fiscal, the single largest outgo proposed is ₹10,727.50 crore which will be spent for meeting expenditure towards Grants-in-aid General under the National Rural Health Mission - India Covid-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package Phase-II. Additionally, over ₹1,450 crore has also been provided for the same purpose but under a different head.

₹1,872 crore for Air India

Another significant allocation is of ₹1,872 crore prescribed for Air India. This will be for the recoupment of advance from Contingency Fund of India.

The Ministry has provided ₹1,750 crore for compounded interest support to lending institutions in respect of borrowers under compounded interest support scheme for loan moratorium. On March 23 this year, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of waiving compound interest, i.e, interest on interest during the six-month moratorium announced by the Reserve Bank of India last year. The apex court said that banks will not charge compound interest or penal interest on any amount during the moratorium period for all borrowers.

Another ₹1,100 crore has been prescribed for providing assistance to sugar mills for 2019-20 season. This will be spent on scheme announced on September 12, 2019, which intended to facilitate export of sugar during the sugar season 2019-20 (October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2020) by improving the liquidity position of sugar mills and enabling them to clear cane price dues of farmers.

GST compensation

The government has also sought approval for the transfer of ₹1.59-lakh crore for GST compensation shortfall. This is purely technical in nature as loans will be provided to State Governments through the issue of debt under special window — Back-to-Back Loan to States’ — in lieu of GST Compensation Shortfall.

“As the Back-to-Back Loan are to be met from equivalent capital receipts, the above expenditure will not entail any additional cash outgo,” the Ministry said.

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