Vote-on-Account: Additional provision of Rs 666.66 crore for conducting general elections, 12.14cr to EC for awareness campaign

New Delhi [India], Feb 1 (ANI): An additional provision of Rs 666.66 crore (voted) in revenue section has been provided for conducting general elections to Law and Justice Ministry in the vote-on-account presented in Parliament on Friday.
In vote-on-account for expenditure of the central government, the gross expenditure for 2019-20 is estimated to be at Rs 97,43,039.70 crore. Against this requirement, the amount asked for is Rs 34,17,295.38 crore.
Broadly, the provision represents one-third of the estimated gross expenditure exhibited in the demands for grants 2019-20, except in certain cases where the expenditure is not uniformly spread over the year and larger provision is required to meet the likely expenditure during April to July 2019.
Items of expenditure for which over and above one-third of the total provision has been sought includes additional funds for Law and Justice Ministry for conducting elections as well as for Election Commission for voters awareness campaign among many other departments and ministries.
Although the vote on account includes one-third of the estimated provision for the whole year, the provisions are not intended to be used for expenditure on any new service.
For Election Commission, an additional provision of Rs 12.14 crore (voted) in revenue section and Rs 16.67 crore (voted) in capital section has been provided for voters’ awareness campaign under SVEEP programme and for the acquisition of land from DDA for construction of office building.
In a significant development, the Department of Consumer Affairs has been provided with an additional provision of Rs 4 crore (voted) in the revenue section and Rs 16 crore (voted) in the capital section to meet the additional requirement in the sub-scheme ‘Strengthening of Legal Metrology Regulation and Enforcement’ for dissemination of Indian Standard Time in the country for the year 2019-20.
For Department of Atomic Energy an additional provision of Rs 240.58 crore (voted) in the revenue section for payment of arrears due to increased fuel costs, Rs 281.34 crore (voted) in the capital section for contractual payments and Rs 6.67 crore (charged) in the capital section towards payment of court decree has been provided to meet the additional requirement of 2019-20.
In line with government’s commitment for the development of north-eastern region, for Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, an additional provision of Rs 66.67 crore (voted) in the revenue section has been provided to meet the additional requirement to meet committed liabilities of 2018-19 related to Assam Gas Cracker Project.
To meet the contractual obligations or carry over liabilities of fertiliser subsidies of 2018-19, the Department of Fertilisers has been provided with an additional provision of Rs 13,907.63 crore (voted) in the revenue section.
For the Department of Commerce, an additional provision of Rs 762.03 crore (voted) in the Revenue Section for NEIA and reimbursement under Interest Equalisation Scheme and Rs 332.50 crore (voted) in the Capital Section for ECGC has been provided to meet the additional requirement on contractual and obligatory payments of 2019-20.
An additional provision of Rs 1993.31 crore (voted) in the Revenue Section and Rs 500.10 crore (voted) in the Capital Section has been provided to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion to meet the additional requirement on GST refund, transfer or freight subsidy scheme and India International Convention and Exhibition Centre for the year 2019-20.
An additional provision of Rs 65,366.83 crore (voted) in the Revenue Section has been provided for meeting the food subsidy to FCI and others, state governments on decentralised food procurement under NFSA etc. for 2019-20 to the Department of Food and Public Distribution.
For Ministry of Defence (misc), an additional provision of Rs 5,324.00 crore (voted) in the Revenue Section and Rs 877.48 crore (voted) in the Capital Section has been provided for CSD payments, carry over liabilities of CSO, including acquisition of ships, aircrafts and fleet and land acquisition.
In addition to that for Defence Services (Revenue), an additional provision of Rs 13,833.73 (voted) in the Revenue Section has been provided for meeting deferred expenditure of 2018-19 and contractual obligations of 2019-20 including payments to HAL, foreign vendors, refit or repairs of ships, machinery spares, aviation stores, weapon spares, POL and arrears of Standard Table Rent.
An additional provision of Rs 37,423.98 (voted) in the Capital Section has been provided for meeting deferred expenditure of 2018-19 and contractual obligations of 2019-20, land acquisition in Srinagar, funds to DRDO, runway resurfacing, machine and equipment etc. for Capital Outlay on Defence Services.
An additional provision of 2077.59 crore (voted) in the Revenue Section and Rs 392.33 crore (voted) in the Capital Section has been provided to meet obligatory or contractual payments for 2019-20 and deferred expenditure of 2018-19 to Ministry of External Affairs.
For Department of Financial Services an additional provision of Rs 83.33 crore (voted) in the Revenue Section and 966.66 crore (voted) in the Capital Section has been provided for subscribing to share capital of Exim Bank, Equity support to IIFCL and to meet other obligatory/contractual payments for 2019-20.
An additional provision of Rs 1666.67 crore (voted) and Rs 16,578.72 crore (charged) in Revenue Section has been provided for transfers to states for payment of salaries for the year 2019-20.
The government has also made an additional provision of Rs 23.02 crore (Voted) in Revenue Section for payment of pension to Freedom Fighter Pension and has provided it to Ministry of Home Affairs.
An additional provision of 14772.49 crore (Voted) in Revenue Section and 2492.33 crore (Voted) in Capital Section has been provided to police for making purchases of flats for Forces such as BSF, CRPF, CISF, ITBP, SSB and NSG and for administrative expenses and security in LWE affected states.
For the Department of Higher Education, an additional provision of Rs 4,276 crore (Voted) in Revenue Section Rs 300 crore (voted) in the Capital Section has been provided to meet the expenditure towards implementation of 10 per cent EWS reservation in Higher Education Institutions and for providing equity support to HEFA.
An additional provision of Rs 20,000 crore (voted) in the Revenue Section has been provided for Department of Rural Development for the release of the first instalment under the schemes MGNREGA.
An additional provision of Rs 197.64 crore (Voted) in Revenue Section has been provided for the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation for conducting field work of 7th Economic Census and other surveys.
An additional provision of Rs 1,377.32 crore (voted) in the Revenue Section has been provided to the Ministry of Textiles for reimbursement of losses to Cotton Corporation of India incurred under MSP and State levies under RoSL scheme.
The NDA Government had on Friday presented a Vote-on-Account with an interim budget for the government's smooth functioning till the time a new government is formed. (ANI)