Parliament nod sought for Rs 11,698-cr extra expenditure

The government on Tuesday sought Parliament sanction for gross additional expenditure of Rs 11,697.92 crore for the current financial year, including an amount of Rs 980 crore for infusion of equity into the heavily indebted Air India.

According to the first batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants, 2018-19, tabled in the Lok Sabha by acting Finance Minister Piyush Goyal, the net cash outgo amounts to Rs 5,951,22 crore and the government's gross additional expenditure have been shown at Rs 5,745.68 crore.

The government has also requested a token provision of Rs 1.02 crore for enabling re-appropriation of savings in cases of new service or new instrument of service.

The Supplementary Demands for Grants are on account of expenditure of Rs 1,791.62 crore for the Agriculture Ministry, Rs 1,500 crore for the Textiles Ministry, Rs 1,057.84 crore for the Defence Ministry and Rs 1,708 crore for the Petroleum Ministry towards creation of capital assets under various schemes.

Under the "technical supplementary demands for grants" of the Civil Aviation Ministry, the government has sought Rs 980 crore towards the Turnaround Plan (TAP) for Air India burdened with an accumulated debt of Rs 50,000 crore.

The grant has been sought as part of the equity infusion into the national carrier, whose proposed strategic divestment failed to take off earlier this year.

"Taking into account the surrender of savings available in the revenue section of the grant, the expenditure (Rs 980 crore) will not entail any additional cash outgo," the Supplementary Demand for Grants document said with reference to Air India.

Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha told the Lok Sabha last week that Air India had received equity infusion of Rs 27,195.21 crore to date.

--IANS

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