Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday sought the Parliament nod for additional spending of Rs 2.35 lakh crore, which include cash outgo of Rs 1.66 lakh crore, primarily to meet expenses for combating the COVID-19 pandemic. Of the total cash outgo, Rs 40,000 crore has been sought towards enhanced expenditure under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Program, Rs 20,000 crore towards capital infusion in public sector banks and Rs 33,771.48 crore for direct benefit transfer under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana and National Social Assistance Programme. As part of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, Rs 33,771.48 crore has been transferred to beneficiaries of both women Jan Dhan Account holders and Old Age Pension holders. “For providing Grants-in-aid General for Direct Benefit Transfer to Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna Women Accounts Holders (Rs 30,956.98 crore) and Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension (Rs 2,814.50 crore) under the scheme National Social Assistance Programme,” the first batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants for 2020-21 tabled in the Lok Sabha said. The government has also sought Rs 46,602.43 crore towards providing additional allocation under Post Devolution Revenue Deficit Grant to states as per recommendations of the Fifteenth Finance Commission. The first batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants for 2020-21 includes 54 Grants and 1 Appropriation. “Approval of the Parliament is sought to authorise gross additional expenditure of Rs 2,35,852.87 crore. Of this, the proposals involving net cash outgo aggregate to Rs 1,66,983.91 crore and gross additional expenditure, matched by savings of the Ministries/Departments or by enhanced receipts/recoveries aggregates to Rs 68,868.33 crore,” it said. To augment the health infrastructure to combat COVID-19 pandemic in the country, the government has sought Rs 14,231.96 crore including Rs 5,915.49 crore for meeting additional expenditure towards Grants-in-aid General for containment of pandemic and Rs 2,475 crore to Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). For meeting expenditure towards Grants-in-aid General under the scheme Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) related to the Labour Ministry, the government has sought Rs 4,860 crore. With regard to meeting expenditure towards food subsidy under National Food Security Act, Rs 10,000 crore has been sought from the Parliament. For meeting expenditure towards recapitalisation of Public Sector Banks through issue of government securities the government asked for Parliament”s authorisation of Rs 20,000 crore, it said. The government has also sought Rs 1,232 crore as subsidy to Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) on interest subvention of 2 per cent on prompt repayment of Shishu Loans extended under Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY). For meeting an additional expenditure towards Grants-in-aid General to National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Limited (NCGTC) for the Guarantee Emergency Credit Line (GECL) facility to eligible MSME borrowers, Rs 4,000 crore has been sought. On May 20, the Cabinet approved additional funding of up to Rs 3 lakh crore at a concessional rate of 9.25 per cent through Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) for MSME sector. Under the scheme, 100 per cent guarantee coverage will be provided by NCGTC for additional funding of up to Rs 3 lakh crore to eligible MSMEs and interested Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency (MUDRA) borrowers in the form of a GECL facility. For this purpose, a corpus of Rs 41,600 crore was set up by the government, spread over the current and next three financial years. The scheme will be applicable to all loans sanctioned under GECL facility during the period from the date of announcement of the scheme to October 31, or till the amount of Rs 3 lakh crore is sanctioned under GECL, whichever is earlier.
