Govt seeks addl Rs 55,000 cr for oil subsidy, CWG, Naxal ops

The government today sought Parliamentary approval for spending an additional Rs 54,588.63 crore this fiscal to meet the requirements arising from the Commonwealth Games (CWG), anti-Naxal operations and compensating the oil marketing firms, among others.

The first supplementary demands for grants, tabled in Parliament, also seeks extra outlay for increasing the country's quota in the IMF, buying out the RBI stake in Nabard and National Housing Board, and special assistance to the trouble-torn Jammu & Kashmir.

The supplementary claims that the net additional cash outgo of over Rs 54,000 crore will not widen fiscal deficit, as the government kitty had swelled by over Rs 1 lakh crore from spectrum sale, three-times more than the budget estimate of Rs 35,000 crore.

"The net cash outgo of Rs 54,588.63 crore will not have any adverse impact on fiscal deficit projected in the budget estimate for 2010-11 due to excess receipts under non-tax revenue," it said.

After the partial rollback of stimulus measures, the government has projected that fiscal deficit will decline to 5.5 per cent of GDP in the current financial year from over 6.5 per cent last fiscal.

In fact, the government sought gross additional outgo of Rs 68,294.30 crore, but Rs 13,705.09 crore is only technical supplementary proposals matched by savings of ministries and departments or by enhanced receipts or recoveries. Besides, token provision of Rs 58 lakh is also asked for.

The government requires additional outlay of Rs 14,000 crore for compensating the oil marketing companies towards their under-recoveries on account of subsidised sale. The additional expenditure on this count will be through cash outgo, it said. The budget had a provision of Rs 3,179 crore for this.

Oil marketers like IndianOil, HPCL and BPCL suffered huge losses as domestic oil prices were kept artificially low, despite rise in crude prices. The decision to hike prices of these products in June, will enable these firm to mitigate these losses.

The supplementary also seeks additional expenditure of Rs 193.42 crore for loans to Organising Committee of Commonwealth Games (CWG) towards the opening and closing ceremonies. It also seeks Rs 20.71 crore for security purposes during the Games, Rs 1.44 crore for payment to BSES for electricity supply to the RK Khanna Stadium, and Rs 0.30 crore for providing air-conditioning in technology equipment room for the Games.

The supplementary also asks for Rs 761.47 crore of extra expenditure on recruitment of special policeforce for the Naxal-hit states and Rs 210 crore for procurement of Inmarsat satellite telephone in these areas.