Days before the Budget session is set to commence, the Ministry of Finance has asked various ministries and departments for expenditure proposals for the second and final batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants, reported PTI.
The report cited a memorandum saying that the final batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants for 2022-23 is proposed to be placed before Parliament in the ensuing session.
The cases that would be eligible to be incorporated under such demands include those where advances from the Contingency Fund of India have been granted. Besides, payments against court decree would be included as well as cases where the finance ministry has specifically advised moving the supplementary demand in the winter session, the memorandum said.
“While processing proposals for supplementary Grants, the Grant controlling authority must invariably identify savings within the Grant so that the infructuous or inflated Supplementary Demands are weeded out and the eventuality of surrender after obtaining Supplementary Grant is avoided,” it added.
Supplementary Grants are the extra funds needed to cover the government’s necessary expenses. An estimate for Supplementary grants is provided to the Parliament when grants authorised in the annual Budget do not cover the necessary expenditure.
From January 31, the two-part Budget session of Parliament will kick off. The final Supplementary Demands for Grants is likely to be presented in the second leg of the session.
The memorandum also noted that the proposal for Supplementary Demand for Grants may be projected after a thorough and objective assessment of additional requirements of funds.
“All ministries/departments have been requested to contain the expenditure within the approved Revised Estimate ceilings,” it said.
The proposals in complete form justifying supplementary demands should be forwarded to the Budget Division of the finance ministry by February 10, 2023, according to the memorandum,
In the previous session held last month, Parliament approved the first batch of supplementary demands for grants worth Rs 3.25 lakh crore, which included over Rs 1.09 lakh crore towards fertiliser subsidies, Rs 80,348.25 crore for meeting expenditure of the food and consumer affairs ministry, and Rs 29,944 crore for the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas towards payments of LPG subsidies and LPG connections to the poor under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana.
This grant was over and above the spending approved in Budget 2022-23. The government estimated expenditure for Budget 2022 was Rs 39.45 lakh crore.