Parliament nod to Rs 45,000 cr extra govt spend without debate

The Lok Sabha had yesterday passed the second batch of supplementary demands for grants with a gross amount of Rs 44,945.52 crore, while the net outgo for additional expenditure would be Rs 19,812 crore.

Both the Houses gave sanction for a large sum of extra expenditure for 2010-11 without any debate as the logjam over opposition demand for a JPC probe into the spectrum scam continued to disrupt Parliament for the 15th working day.

The Rajya Sabha returned the related appropriation bills amidst shouting of slogans by the opposition including BJP, AIADMK, TDP and the Left parties supporting the JPC demand.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was witness to the noisy scenes when Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena moved the bills.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had said yesterday that the additional outgo would not result in increase in the fiscal deficit of the Central government, pegged at 5.5 per cent in the budget.

Thanks to the country returning to a robust economic growth, the tax buoyancy and higher than anticipated receipts from auction of 3G spectrum helped the government finances.

The additional out go was sought mainly to meet expenses towards fertiliser and food subsidy.

Earlier, in the first supplementary demands for grants, the Government got Rs 68,294.30 crore, which entailed net cash outgo of Rs 54,588.63 crore for additional expenses.

The government in the annual 2010-11 budget had proposed an expenditure of Rs 11.08 lakh crore