Finance Ministry ahead of the Monsoon Session of Parliament next month has begun preparatory work on the first Supplementary Demand for Grants, which are likely to be capped at about Rs. 25,000 crore.
The Ministry stated that “The proposals along with the draft statement justifying Supplementary Demands to be included and appropriate background notes may be forwarded to the Budget Division.” Ministry further added, all proposals must be submitted by June 24.
In the first Supplementary Demand for Grants only urgent proposals relating to, advances from Contingency Fund, payments against court decrees and specific proposals already approved by the government should be taken into consideration, as in the financially challenging year the ministry remained stressed. Besides, all other cases may be withheld and move over to the next batch of Supplementary Demands for the current financial year.
The ministry has re-iterated its earlier instructions that efforts must be made to use internal savings and scrupulously scrutinise proposals before forwarding them. The objective is to keep additional expenditure at the minimum at present and try to use the funds already allocated in the Union Budget. The Centre's total expenditure in 2016-17 is pegged at Rs. 19.78 lakh crore, which includes Rs 5.50 lakh crore under Plan and Rs 14.28 lakh crore under Non-Plan spending.