<span style="color: #222222;">Lok Sabha today passed the Supplementary Demand for Grants, first batch for 2022-23, and Demands for Excess Grants for 2019-20. Under the Supplementary Demands for Grants, the Government has proposed gross additional expenditure worth around 4.36 lakh crore rupees for the current fiscal.  It includes net cash outgo aggregating to over 3.25 lakh crore rupees and gross additional expenditure, matched by savings of the Ministries and Departments or enhanced receipts aggregating to over 1.10 lakh crore rupees.<br />''<br />''The highest amount of 1.09 lakh crore rupees will be towards fertiliser subsidy payout. Under the first batch, approval was sought for meeting additional expenditure of around 80 thousand 348 crore rupees towards food subsidy and additional allocation under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY).<br />''<br />''Replying to a discussion on Supplementary Demand for Grants in Lok Sabha, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman asserted that inflation is declining continuously in the country benefiting the poor and the Wholesale price index has gone down to 5.8 percent which is the lowest in the last 21 months. <br />''<br />''She said that the government is keeping a close watch on the price situation of essential commodities. The Minister said that inflation was in double digits in earlier regimes but in November this year it reduced to 5.8 percent. She added that buffer stocks of pulses have been maintained for price stabilisation in the country.<br />''<br />''The Minister reiterated that the Indian rupee is strengthening against other currencies. She said, the rupee is much stronger against the dollar than other countries' currencies like South Korea's Won, Japanese Yen, and Indonesian Rupiah. Talking about the Supplementary Demand for Grants, the Finance Minister said that it is only eight percent of the current budget estimate and a major part of it is for subsidies on fertilisers, Food, and public distribution and for Ujjawala consumers.</span><br />