On Wednesday, the government requested Parliament's approval for a net additional expenditure of Rs 58,378 crore in the current fiscal year ending March 2024. The proposed gross additional spending is over Rs 1.29 lakh crore, with Rs 70,968 crore expected to be offset by savings and receipts. The Supplementary Demands for Grants, presented in Parliament, outline the net additional spending, including Rs 13,351 crore for fertiliser subsidies and around Rs 7,000 crore for the Department of Food and Public Distribution.
Additionally, Parliament's approval is sought for an extra Rs 9,200 crore in spending by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Rs 14,524 crore by the Ministry of Rural Development, particularly for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). The Ministry of External Affairs is slated for a total supplementary spending of Rs 20,000 crore, which will be adjusted against a reduction of expenditure exceeding Rs 9,000 crore.
Icra Chief Economist Aditi Nayar expressed that the net cash outflow in the Supplementary Demand for Grants is reasonable and could potentially be balanced by savings in other departments. She emphasized that this does not indicate a significant risk of surpassing the fiscal deficit target. For the entire fiscal year 2023-24, the government has budgeted a fiscal deficit of Rs 17.86 lakh crore or 5.9% of the GDP. Notably, the fiscal deficit for April-October accounted for 45.6% of the full-year Budget Estimate in the previous fiscal year.