The government on Friday sought Parliament's approval for supplementary spending of over Rs 3.25 lakh crore, primarily due to higher payouts for food and fuel subsidies. The first supplementary demands for grants is for spending amount over and above the estimates outlined in Budget 2022-23 and includes additional outgo of over Rs 1.09 lakh crore towards fertiliser subsidy. Also, approval has been sought for meeting expenditure of the Food and Consumer Affairs Ministry for Rs 80,348.25 crore to be used mainly for distribution of free foodgrains under the National Food Security Act and for additional allocation under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) (Rs 60,110.32 crore). An amount of Rs 29,944 crore has been sought for expenditure of the Ministry of Petroleum towards payments of LPG subsidies to oil marketing companies and LPG connections to the poor under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana among others. As per the first batch of supplementary demands for grants tabled in Lok Sabha by Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary, approval is being sought for gross additional expenditure of about Rs 4.36 lakh crore. Of this, net cash outgo amounts to over Rs 3.25 lakh crore and gross additional expenditure, matched by savings of ministries/departments or by enhanced receipts is over Rs 1.10 lakh crore. In Budget, the government estimated a total expenditure of Rs 39.45 lakh crore for 2022-23, as compared to Rs 37.70 lakh crore for the previous fiscal.
