The Lok Sabha has approved the Supplementary Demands for Grants-First Batch for 2024-2025. The government sought approval of Parliament to authorise gross additional expenditure of over 87 thousand 762 crore rupees.
Out of this, the proposals involve net cash outgo aggregate to 44 thousand 142 crore rupees for payments of debts, liabilities, and interest rates. The House also gave its nod to the Appropriation Bill to authorise payment and appropriation of certain further sums from and out of the Consolidated Fund of India for the services of the financial year 2024-25.
Replying to the discussion, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that India is the fastest growing economy in the world and it witnessed 8.3 percent average GDP growth in the last three years. She expressed hope that the economy will continue to be in a better shape in the coming years. She said, the government has increased the capital expenditure to boost the economy and over 11 lakh crore rupees budgetary allocations have been made in this year’s Budget. Countering opposition’s allegations on rising inflation in the country, the Finance Minister said, headline, retail, food, and fuel inflation have come down drastically in the NDA government in comparison to the previous UPA regime. She said, headline and food inflation was over 10 percent in the UPA regime, which came down to over five percent under the NDA government.
She said, the number of domestic active customers of LPG cylinders have improved considerably in the last ten years reaching to around 33 crore. She said, nearly 45 percent of Indian households did not have access to clean cooking fuels before April 2014. She claimed that cylinder prices are far less in the country in comparison to neighbouring countries.
On the employment front, the Finance Minister pointed out that the unemployment rate has gone down from 6 percent in 2017-18 to 3.2 percent in 2023-24.
