The Government today sought Parliament’s approval to spend an additional Rs 7,500 crore, including Rs 1,000 crore for setting up of ‘Nirbhaya Fund’ for the safety of women, and a similar amount for women’s bank.
The first batch of supplementary demands for grants for 2013-14 involving an additional expenditure of Rs 7,499.42 crore was tabled in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
The net cash outgo, however, will only be Rs 127.14 crore as “gross additional expenditure, matched by savings of the Ministries/Departments or by enhanced receipts/recoveries aggregates to Rs 7,372.55 crore,” according to the statement of supplementary demands for grants.
The additional spendings include Rs 1,000 crore for the setting up of ‘Nirbhaya Fund’ for the safety of women and a similar amount will be provided to the National Skill Development Corporation to extend skill training to youth.
Besides, Rs 1,000 crore has been provided as initial capital for the establishment of women’s bank. Also, a loan of Rs 1,830 crore is to be given to the International Monetary Fund.
The Government also proposes to provide Rs 500 crore to Small Industrial Development Bank of India (SIDBI) to set up a Credit Guarantee Fund, while Rs 100 crore has been proposed to be given to India Microfinance Equity Fund of SIDBI to provide equity and quasi-equity to microfinance institutions.
Also, Rs 100 crore each has been provided as grants to Aligarh Muslim University and Banaras Hindu University, while Rs 200 crore has been provisioned for the Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Sashaktikaran Abhiyan.