LS approves supplementary demands for grants

With no signs of an end to the 14-day deadlock in Parliament, the Lok Sabha today completed most of its financial business amid din created by the Opposition over demand for a joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to probe irregularities into the 2G spectrum allocation. 

The House approved the second batch of supplementary demands, allowing the government to raise public expenditure by about Rs 20,000 crore during the current financial year. The demands for grants for railways are likely to be taken up tomorrow. 

The supplementary demands for grants and related appropriation bills were introduced by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and approved without any discussion, as Opposition members continued shouting slogans. 

The additional outgo, Mukherjee later told reporters, would not increase the fiscal deficit pegged at 5.5 per cent in the Budget, mainly on account of tax buoyancy and higher-than-expected receipts from the auction of 3G spectrum. 

Although the government sought a gross amount of Rs 44,945.52 crore, the net cash outgo will be only Rs 19,812 crore, as the remaining amount would be adjusted against savings under different heads. 

The additional outgo is being sought to meet expenses towards fertiliser and food subsidy. While Rs 1,000 crore was demanded for subsidy on imported decontrolled fertilisers, the rest was for indigenous decontrolled fertilisers. 

Besides, another Rs 5,000 crore is required for making payment to Food Corporation of India on sale of bonds given earlier for providing subsidised food to state governments on procurement of foodgrain, to MMTC for import of edible oil, to banks for interest subsidy to farmers and for procurement of sugar.