The Lok Sabha today passed supplementary demands for grants totalling Rs 8,519 crore for additional expenditure for this financial year. The demands provide for writing-off of a Rs 1,573 crore loan to IFCI for its re-structuring and Rs 607 crore to states for the payment of dues to sugarcane growers.The supplementary demands for a total of 29 grants involve a net cash outflow of Rs 5,580 crore as the remaining Rs 2939 crore is to be met through savings and enhanced receipts and recoveries.However, the passage was not as eventless as was probably visualised by Finance Minister Jaswant Singh. Though both sides had apparently agreed to pass them without a discussion at the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) meeting, RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh demanded a discussion. He was challenged by BJP’s Vijay Kumar Malhotra, who pointed at the consensus at the BAC and wondered how Singh, a member of the BAC, could go against it.Singh, however, went ahead with his submission. He said the Government had first brought forward an ‘‘anti-people and anti-farmer’’ budget. Then it failed to unearth Rs 8 lakh crore worth of black money. ‘‘The Government is protecting the multinationals and big business. Now, instead of honouring its promise of giving one crore jobs a year, it is snatching employment opportunities.’’The Finance Minister did not join the issue with him and moved the demands, which were carried through with a voice vote.A provision of Rs 442 crore for implementing voluntary retirement and separation schemes in several PSUs including Steel Authority of India, Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals, Hindustan Antibiotics, Fertiliser and Chemicals Travancore Ltd and National Savings Organisation has been provided in the supplementary demands. They also provide Rs 551 crore for additional investment in the IMF and and an additional Rs 3.93 crore for the payment of subscription to the soft lending arm of World Bank International Development Association. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation will get Rs 500 crore and the Commerce Ministry Rs 200 crore for price stabilisation fund for tea, coffee, rubber and tobacco. A total of Rs 3,650 crore have been apportioned for additional expenditure under Sampoorna Gramin Rozgar Yojana.
