Govt seeks Par nod for Rs 56,848 cr additional net spend

Faced with a resource crunch, the Government today sought Parliamentary approval for additional net expenditure of Rs 56,848.46 crore for the current fiscal, with under-recoveries of oil marketing companies accounting for Rs 30,000 crore.

The approval for second supplementary grants for 2011-12 was sought by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in the Lok Sabha. A statement in this regard was laid in the Upper House.

"Approval of Parliament is sought to authorise gross additional expenditure of Rs 63,180.24 crore. Of this, the proposals involving net cash outgo aggregate to Rs 56,848.46 crore and gross additional expenditure, matched by the savings of the Ministries/Departments aggregates to Rs 6,330.80 crore," the introductory note for demand said.

A maximum of Rs 30,000 crore grant has been sought for Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

The statement for supplementary demands said the grants for Ministry of Petroleum is sought for "providing compensation towards estimated under-recoveries to Oil Marketing Companies on account of sale of petroleum products (Rs 30,000 crore)...."

Besides Ministry of Petroleum, Rs 13,778.93 crore grants has been sought for Department of Fertilisers to meet Rs 2,200 crore expenditure on subsidy on imported fertilisers and Rs 3,000 crore on imported decontrolled fertilisers.

Of the additional expenditure sought Rs 3,800 crore has been sought for Ministry of Defence, Rs 2,297.52 crore for Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Rs 1,500 crore for Police and Rs 1,030 crore for Pensions.