Govt to spend Rs 60,000 cr more on rural jobs

The Centre has sought parliamentary approval for nearly Rs 60,000 crore in additional spending, primarily for rural employment, urban development, farm insurance and infrastructure.

The Second Supplementary Demand for Grants, tabled in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, sought gross additional expenditure of Rs 59,978.29 crore. Presenting the demand, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the net cash outgo would be Rs 35,171.92 crore, while the rest would come from enhanced receipts and savings by ministries.

An official said if the demands were approved, Plan expenditure for 2016-17 would rise to Rs 5.95 lakh crore from the Budget Estimate of Rs 5.5 lakh crore. The official said the second half of the financial year could be see a slowdown but tax collections for 2016-17 would exceed Budget Estimates of Rs 1.05 lakh crore.

According to the demands, Rs 4,000 crore has been sought for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) and Rs 3,096.28 crore by the agriculture ministry for the Krishi Kalyan Kosh and and Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana. Including the Budget Estimates and a previous supplementary demand, the allocation for the NREGA in 2016-17 will be Rs 47,000 crore, the highest-ever. This includes last year’s dues of Rs 12,000 crore. The urban development ministry has sought Rs 3,700 crore for funding Metro rail projects in Mumbai, Lucknow, Chennai and Ahmedabad.

Jaitley also sought approval for Rs 1,000 crore for the Coast Guard to buy ships, aircraft and land, Rs 2,500 crore for the ministry of drinking water and sanitation, and Rs 210 crore for implementation of the goods and services tax and project Saksham.

Approval was also sought for meeting expenditure for clearing pending claims for the maintenance of the Prime Minister’s aircraft (Rs 193 crore), the cyber security research and development scheme of the National Security Council Secretariat (Rs 50 crore), and grants-in-general to the National Authority Chemical Weapons Convention helpdesks (Rs 1.01 crore).