Govt seeks Parliament's approval for gross additional expenditure of over Rs 1.12 lakh cr

New Delhi: Government on Friday sought Parliament’s approval for gross additional expenditure of over Rs 1.12 lakh crore as part of the third and final batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants for this fiscal, a bulk of which is for increasing India’s quota in IMF. “Of this, the proposals involving net cash outgo aggregate to Rs 27,770.33 crore and gross additional expenditure, matched by savings of the Ministries/Departments or by enhanced receipts/recoveries aggregates to Rs 84,850.80 crore,” said the Supplementary Demands for Grants in respect of the 2015-16 general budget moved by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. [caption id=“attachment_2669486” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters[/caption] As per the document, the government is seeking Parliament nod for “investment of Rs 69,575.47 crore towards subscription to International Monetary Fund for Quota increase”. However, after taking into account additional receipts of Rs 52,181 crore by issue of securities, monetising Rs 17,393.87 crore through India’s SDR holding with RBI and saving of Rs 2,618.94 crore available, the supplementary will not entail cash outgo, the document said. Government has also sought token provision of Rs 1.3 crore for enabling re-appropriation of savings in cases involving “new services or new instrument of services”. The much-awaited quota reforms, pending for many years, were approved by the US Congress in 2015. The 2010 Quota and Governance reforms were approved by the IMF’s Board of Governors in December 2010. Currently, India has voting rights of 2.34 per cent at the IMF, which has 188 members. In terms of quota, India has a share of 2.44 per cent. As per the Demands for Grants document, Jaitley also sought Rs 5,050 crore for meeting additional expenditure on recapitalisation of public sector banks. For the Ministry of Defence, a demand of Rs 2,049.79 crore has been made for meeting additional expenditure. This include, Rs 117.02 crore towards army vehicle and Rs 633.92 crore for air craft for Navy. Permission has also been sought for refund of upfront charges of BWA spectrum to BSNL (Rs 3,340.5 crore) and MTNL (Rs 428.95 crore). It also include Rs 77.55 crore towards “settliment of pending dues to Pakistan Telecom Company Limited”. Further, the Finance Minster is seeking Rs 15,000 crore for subsidy payable to FCI and others on foodgrains transaction under National Food Security Act (NFSA). PTI