Govt seeks Parliament nod for additional Rs 54,000 cr

The government on Friday sought Parliament's approval for an additional spending of Rs 54,000 crore to meet its commitments towards GST compensation to states and cover for enhanced dearness relief and pension needs of its employees.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the second batch of supplementary demands for grants in the Lok Sabha that, among other things, include a sum of Rs 20,000 crore required for releasing GST compensation. This includes GST compensation of Rs 16,200 crore to states and Rs 3,800 crore to UTs.

The other additional expenditures for which the government has sought Parliamentary approval include cash outgo of Rs 200 crore for import of fuel by the Department of Atomic Energy, Rs 1,100 crore by Department of Communications for salary expenses and expense of Rs 96.42 crore towards maintenance of Prime Minister's aircraft.

The second batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants for 2019-20 includes 78 grants and 4 appropriations.

The supplementary demand for grants is an additional grant required to meet the required expenditure of the government over and above the amount for which parliamentary nod was taken earlier.

In November, Sitharaman had taken Parliament's approval for additional spending of Rs 21,246 crore as part of the first supplementary demand for grants.

The government has now sought gross additional expenditure of Rs 4.8 lakh crore, but net cash outgo is expected only to the tune of Rs 53,963.58 crore. IANS