Economy is on the right track, Sitharaman; LS approves Rs 1.29 lakh crore supplementary grants

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said the Modi government is giving priority to fiscal prudence while giving funds for social welfare and that the economy is moving in the right direction.

Replying to the debate on the first batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants for 2023-24 and the demands for excess grants for 2020-2021, she said the government has prioritised balancing interests of consumers and farmers.

The demands for grants and requisite appropriation bills were later passed by the Lok Sabha. The first batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants for 2023-24 sought approval of Parliament to authorise gross additional expenditure of over Rs 1.29 lakh crore. Of this, the proposals involving net cash outgo aggregate to Rs 58,378.21 crore.

“We have prioritised balancing the interests of farmers and consumers. Often, there’s a situation when prices go up, you need to have supply-size constraints removed and increase purchases, for the consumer’s sake. Even during this time, we are equally conscious that the price at which we procure from the farmers is adequate. There has been more than five-fold increase in the agriculture budget to Rs. 1.25 lakh crore in 2023-24 from 2013-14,” she said.

She said for wheat, MSP for the Rabi marketing season in 2014-15 was Rs. 1,400 per quintal and for the same in 2024-25 is Rs. 2,275 per quintal, showing an increase of Rs 875 (63 per cent).

“Similarly, for Barley, it was Rs 1,100 then and now it is Rs 1,850, i.e. 68 per cent increase. – For gram, it was Rs. 3,100 then and Rs. 5,440 now. For Masur, it was Rs 2,950 then and now Rs 6,425, an increase of 118 per cent. Rapeseed and mustard were Rs 3,050 then and Rs 5,650 now, an increase of 85 per cent. Safflower was Rs 3,000 then and Rs. 5,800 now, i.e. 93 per cent increase,” she said.

The minister said MSP payments for wheat during 2006-14 was Rs 2.39 lakh crore. Now, it stands at Rs 4.52 lakh crore, “two times more is going to the farmers who are growing wheat, be they in Punjab, Haryana, or Madhya Pradesh”. “Similarly, 1.52 lakh metric tonnes of pulses were procured in 2014. Now, 82.21 lakh metric tonnes have been purchased, a 54-time increase in the procurement of pulses. – MSP for paddy, Rs 3.09 lakh crore went out to the farmers between 2006 to 2014. Now, between 2014 to 2022, it’s Rs 10.06 lakh crore, 3.3 times more,” she said.

Sitharaman said Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh were the two states affected by Cyclone ‘Michaung’ and glacial outflow has affected Sikkim.

“To help the state governments in managing the relief against the cyclone, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), in advance, has released the second installment of the State Disaster Relief Fund of Rs 493.60 crore to Andhra Pradesh and Rs 450 crore to Tamil Nadu respectively.

“The Centre had already released the first installment of the same amount to both the states. In addition, the state government of Andhra Pradesh has an opening balance in their SDRF account of Rs 2,569.85 crore and Tamil Nadu has an opening balance of Rs 813.15 crore. Further, without waiting, the Central government has constituted the inter-ministerial central teams for both states and they’ve done the assessment of damages which have been caused by the cyclone.

“For the Chennai Basin Project under the National Disaster Mitigation Fund, which includes central assistance of Rs 500 crore, we’re taking a proactive approach so that the first urban flood mitigation project of Rs 561.29 crore for integrated urban flood management activities can be taken up,” she said.

She also listed the major items included in the First Batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants 2023-24. “For the Nutrient Based Fertiliser Subsidy, we have demanded Rs 16,300 crore. This is being funded through both Cash supplementary and savings from the Demand. -For Capital Infusion in BSNL, we have allocated Rs 11,850 crore. The government led Prime Minister Narendra Modi cares about BSNL unlike the UPA which just didn’t care about BSNL and the situation of the company went bad in their tenure of 10 years. Optic Fibre Network would get about Rs 1434 crore.

“Subsidy to the state government for decentralised procurement of food grains under PMGKAY which has now been extended for five years, we have demanded Rs 5500 crore. “For providing LPG connections to poor households under Ujjwala Yojana and achieving its saturation, Rs 8,500 crores have been allocated.

“Under MGNREGA which is a demand-driven scheme, we had allocated Rs 60,000 crores in the BE of Union Budget 2023-24. Now, as the demand has increased, we have allocated Rs 20000 crores extra. So in total, we have allocated Rs 80000 crores for MGNREGA till December 2023,” the minister said. The minister said for Jammu and Kashmir, additional expenditure of Rs 3,170 towards Central Assistance to meet the resource gap has been included in the Supplementary Demands for Grants.

“A new scheme named PM Vishwakarma Yojana was launched on August 15,2023 to provide end-to-end support to artisans and craftspeople of 18 trades who work with their hands and tools. For this Rs 989.52 crores have been included in this Supplementary Demands for Grants.”

Sitharaman said at times, the states did not comply with the Centre’s scheme guidelines, due to which releases are not being made.

“Punjab needs to ensure that these are followed. Common reasons for the non-release of Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) funds to the States are: High bank balance in the account of Single Nodal Agency (SNA) of the scheme; non-submission of Annual Action Plan by the States; outstanding Utilisation Certificates (UCs) from States as per provisions of GFR; Violation of branding or naming guidelines of CSS; non-transfer of previously released Central share or States’ share to the SNA account by the state Government and non-remittance of interest accrued in the SNA account to the Consolidated Fund of India by the State Nodal Agency.”

The minister said Rs 1,104 crore have been provided to Punjab under the Rural Infra Development Fund by NABARD since the AAP came to power in March 2022.

(ANI)