Lok Sabha approves Rs 2.35 lakh crore additional expenditure this year

In an attempt to revive the economy at a time when the government's revenue collection has registered a sharp decline while expenditure has gone up, Lok Sabha, the lower house of the parliament, approved an additional expenditure of over Rs 2.35 lakh crore in the financial year 2020-21. The major chunk of this money will be spent in the people-centric schemes, writes ETV Bharat's Deputy News Editor, Krishnanand Tripathi.

New Delhi: Lok Sabha on Friday approved an additional expenditure of over Rs 2.35 lakh crore in the financial year 2020-21 as finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman wages a difficult battle to revive the economy at a time when her revenue collection has registered a sharp decline while expenditure has gone up on account of relief measures to fight global COVID-19 pandemic.

This additional expenditure entails, net cash outgo of Rs 1.67 lakh crore, over 70% of the total amount, while the government will arrange nearly Rs 69,000 crore by cutting down the earlier approved expenditure of different ministries and departments.

“This is probably for the first time when this kind of amount has been pitched in a supplementary demand. With demand for an additional Rs 1,66,983, crores, this is probably the highest that the budget has seen in this country,” Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in the Lok Sabha.

Responding to the queries raised by the opposition benches, she said it was a challenging time and the additional money will be largely spent in the people-centric schemes.

“I'd like to highlight that during this challenging time, the additional resources are largely going towards people-centric activities so that the money can reach the people through some of the most critical schemes of the government,” said the finance minister.

She said that the biggest chunk of this additional amount will be utilised in paying post-devolution grant to states, state disaster relief funds, health and food subsidy, credit guarantee scheme and PM Garib Kalyan scheme.

The government has increased the allocation for Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) by an additional Rs 40,000 crore.

“With the additional allocation of Rs 40,000 crores, the total allocation for the scheme in the year will touch over Rs 1 lakh crore,” said the finance minister while responding to the opposition members who criticised the government for not doing enough for migrant labourers who returned to their villages due to COVID-19 lockdown.