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The finance ministry has sought expenditure proposals for the second and final batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants from various ministries and departments ahead of the Budget session likely to commence in the last week of January. This would be the last session of the 17th Lok Sabha before the general elections and the government would seek expenditure approvals of Parliament for four months till July 2024 through a vote on account. The second batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants for 2023-24 is proposed to be placed before Parliament in the ensuing Budget session, the finance ministry said in an office memorandum. The cases that would be eligible to be incorporated under such demands include those where advances from the Contingency Fund have been granted. Besides, payments against court decree would be included as well as cases where the finance ministry has specifically advised moving the supplementary demand in the winter session, it said. "While processing proposals
The Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana has resulted in huge out-of-pocket expenditure savings related to hospitalisations for the targeted beneficiaries, Minister of State for Health S P Singh Baghel told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. A total of 3.14 crore beneficiaries were benefited during the last two years under the Centre's ambitious health insurance scheme, he said. The states/UTs having maximum and minimum number of beneficiary families supported by the Centre and state are Uttar Pradesh and Lakshadweep, respectively, Baghel said in a written reply. Responding to a question, he said in Gujarat, Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) is implemented in convergence with the state scheme Mukhyamantri Amrutum. As of July 19, 2023, a total of 41.34 lakh hospital admissions worth Rs 8,564 crore have been authorised under the scheme in Gujarat, Baghel stated. For the financial year 2022-23, central share of funds of Rs 6,048 crore were released
The central government's fiscal deficit at the end of May stood at 11.8 per cent of the full-year budget estimates for 2023-24, according to official data. The fiscal deficit was 12.3 per cent of the 2022-23 BE in the same period of the last year. Fiscal deficit is the difference between total expenditure and revenue of the government. It is an indication of the total borrowings that are needed by the government. In actual terms, the deficit was Rs 2,10,287 crore at end-May 2023, as per the data of the Controller General of Accounts (CGA). In the Union Budget, the government aimed to bring down the fiscal deficit during the current financial year 2023-24 to 5.9 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP). The deficit was 6.4 per cent of the GDP in 2022-23 against the earlier estimate of 6.71 per cent. Unveiling the revenue-expenditure data of the Union government for the first two months of the 2023-24, CGA said the net tax revenue was Rs 2.78 lakh crore or 11.9 per cent of the