NEW DELHI: India’s government sought parliament’s approval on Monday for net 414.55 billion rupees ($4.62 billion) in additional spending for the fiscal year, proposing extra allocations for defence procurements, and subsidies on fertiliser and cooking gas.
The government sought lawmakers’ approval for 1.32 trillion rupees in gross extra spending this fiscal year, documents showed.
In a statement on the first batch of supplementary demands for grants, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the federal government has proposed 41.03 billion rupees for defence to meet procurement needs and cover higher capital expenses.
The government has sought 125 billion rupees to compensate state-run oil marketing companies for under-recoveries made on selling cooking gas and 110 billion rupees in additional fertiliser subsidy for both domestic and imported phosphatic and potassic fertilisers.
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The total net cash outgo includes a spend of 75.25 billion rupees to cover the higher cost of imported urea.
The proposed additional spending comes on top of the government’s budgeted expenditure of 50.65 trillion rupees for the current fiscal year that ends on March 31.
The supplementary allocations will now be scrutinised by parliamentary panels before being put to a vote in both houses. Approval is typically a formality given the ruling party’s majority.
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