Parliament has passed the Appropriation (No.3) Bill 2022 and the Appropriation (No.2) Bill 2022 with the Rajya Sabha returning them to the Lok Sabha after consideration. The Lok Sabha has already approved these two bills.<br />'' <br />'' As these are money bills, they are generally returned to the Lower House after consideration. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had moved the Appropriation (No.3) Bill 2022 in the Rajya Sabha 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 2021-22.<br />'' <br />'' The Appropriation (No.2) seeks to provide for the authorisation of appropriation of moneys out of the Consolidated Fund of India to meet the amounts spent on certain services during the financial year ended on the 31st day of March, 2019, in excess of the amounts granted for those services and for that year.<br />'' <br />'' Replying to a debate on these two bills which were taken together in the Rajya Sabha, Ms Sitharaman ruled out any reduction of allocation in central schemes like MGNREGA, food subsidy , fertilizer subsidy and defence sector.<br />'' <br />'' She said, for MGNREGA which is a  demand-driven scheme, the budget estimate in 2021-22 was to the tune of 73 thousand crore rupees which was raised in the Revised Estimates to 98 thousand crore rupees. She added that in the Union Budget 2021-22, the proposed allocation for this scheme is 73 thousand crore rupees.  <br />'' <br />'' In case of fertilizer subsidy, the budget estimate in 2021-22 was 79 thousand 530 crore rupees and in revised estimates the amount has touched one lakh 40 thousand crore rupees.  <br />'' <br />'' She said, this time in the Union budget the government has made an allocation of one lakh five thousand crore rupees for fertilizer subsidy which is 31 per cent more than the budget estimate of 2021-22.  In excess demands, she said,  the government has borne higher cost of urea and not passed it on to farmers.<br />'' <br />'' Referring to Defence Services, Ms Sitharaman highlighted that in the last four years there has been no reduction in budgetary allocations. She alleged that for 10 years, nil defence procurement happened under Congress-led UPA. She said, in 2009, the defence forces required over three lakh 53 thousand bulletproof jackets but no procurement order was made for long time. She said, in the NDA rule, the request of purchase of 1 lakh 86 thousand such jackets was issued in April 2016 and the tender in this regard was issued in April 2018 to an Indian Buyer. She said, this shows that the government has quickly ramped up the purchase of essentials for Indian soldiers.<br />'' <br />'' The Finance Minister also informed that the government has givem an order for supply of 118 Arjun special tanks for the Indian Army worth 7 thousand 523 crore rupees.<br />'' <br />'' She also informed that five thousand crore rupees are proposed for recapitalisation of state insurance companies in third batch of supplementary demands for grants.<br />'' <br />''  On EPFO's Central Board decision of lowering the interest rate to 8.1 per cent from 8.4 per cent, the Finance Minister asserted that the proposed 8.1 per cent interest rate on employees' provident fund is better than interest rates offered by other small savings schemes, and the revision is dictated by the realities of the current times.<br />'' <br />'' She said that the EPFO's central board takes a call on the interest rate on provident fund deposits, and it is the board that has proposed cutting PF rate to 8.1 per cent for 2021-22.<br />'' <br />'' Earlier initiating the discussion on the bills , Shaktisinh Gohil of Congress questioned over the non-repayment of GST compensation to the States. He said, the government is spending crores of rupees on the development of Central Vista despite the fiscal constraints. He also questioned the levying of cess saying that the States do not get any amount from the collections.<br />'' Pointing towards the non-implementation of the Parliament's Committee report, he said, the Committee has suggested measures to take appropriate steps to ramp up the health infrastructure before the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic, but the Ministry of Health did not work on those measures.<br />'' <br />'' TKS Elangovan of DMK also raised the GST issue saying that compensation is due and the Centre must take step to pay the dues. Ayodhya Rami Reddy of YSRCP said, states have been facing fiscal difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the GST compensation is due which is putting pressure on the States' economic health.<br />'' <br />'' John Brittas of CPI(M) said, raised the issue of LIC privatization saying that the government is trying to sell off the valuable asset. Vishambhar Prasad Nishad of Samajwadi Party said, the MSP on foodgrains must be raised as the input cost has risen multifold. Manoj Jha of RJD said, budgetary allocations on social sector scheme are negligible.<br />'' <br />''<br />''Shiv Pratap Shukla of BJP said, the government has taken up steps to increase the compensation to farmers. He said, several farmers who were not interested in agricultural activities because of various reasons, have now adopted agrarian practices due to agriculture friendly policies implemented under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said, this will lead to economic empowerment of the farmers. Members from other political parties also participated in the discussion.