Govt seeks Par nod to spend additional Rs 1.48 lakh cr in 2022-23

New Delhi, Mar 13 (PTI) The government on Monday sought the approval of Parliament to spend an additional Rs 1.48 lakh crore for the current financial year 2022-23 as part of the second batch of supplementary demands for grants.

Of the total, an additional fund of Rs 36,325 crore is being sought for payment towards fertiliser subsidy, said the second batch of supplementary demands for grants tabled in the Lok Sabha by Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary.

This includes additional subsidy outgo of Rs 21,000 crore for P&K (phosphorus and potassium) and Rs 15,325.36 crore for urea.

In addition, the government has pegged the fund requirement for additional transfers to the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) at Rs 25,000 crore.

As per the supplementary, there would be an additional outgo of Rs 33,718.49 crore for Defence Pensions, especially on account of payment of arrears towards the One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme.

The requirement of additional transfer to the GST Compensation Fund towards states and Union Territories have been pegged at Rs 33,506 crore.

“Approval of the Parliament is sought to authorise gross additional expenditure of Rs 2,70,508.89 crore. Of this, the proposals involving net cash outgo aggregate to Rs 1,48,133.23 crore and gross additional expenditure, matched by savings of the Ministries/Departments or by enhanced receipts/recoveries aggregates to Rs 1,22,374.37 crore,” said the statement on supplementary demands for grants.

Icra Chief Economist Aditi Nayar said the net cash outgo under the supplementary demand for grants is dominated by fertiliser subsidiary, defence pensions, the telecom sector and GST compensation, which account for 73 per cent of the total amount.

“Although a portion of the net cash outgo of Rs 1.48 lakh crore may be offset by savings under other heads, it has raised the likelihood of a modest slippage relative to the revised estimate of the FY2023 fiscal deficit of Rs 17.6 trillion. Regardless, bond yields are likely to take a cue from global yields and the expectations of monetary tightening at the upcoming policy review,” Nayar said.

Meanwhile, Chaudhary has also sought an additional Rs 3,711 crore for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir as part of the supplementary demands for grants.

Of the total additional amount, Rs 2,625.25 crore is being sought for meeting expenditure on pensionary benefits.