Finance Ministry seeks Parliament nod to spend Rs 2.81 lakh crore more in FY26

Fertiliser prices have shot up globally in the wake of the conflict in West Asia between Israel, US, and Iran. Further, the Gulf countries of Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain account for around three-fourths of India’s urea imports. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is the most important source of India’s import of di-ammonium phosphate (DAP), a complex fertiliser.

In the second supplementary demand for grants for 2025-26, tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, the finance ministry said the total extra spending on a net basis is estimated to be Rs 2.01 lakh crore, with various ministries and departments of the central government seen making savings of Rs 80,145.71 crore.

However, there could be additional savings, with latest data on the government’s finances for 2025-26 showing that total expenditure in the first 10 months of the fiscal stood at Rs 36.9 lakh crore, or 74.3% of the revised estimate of Rs 49.65 lakh crore for the year that will end on March 31. As such, to meet the revised estimate for the full year, total expenditure in February and March needs to be a steep Rs 12.75 lakh crore. In February-March 2025, the Centre had spent Rs 10.86 lakh crore in total.

The biggest chunk of extra spending is seen due to the ‘inter account transfer’ under the Economic Stabilization Fund. This sum of Rs 1 lakh crore is on top of the Rs 50,000 crore under the ‘Other General Economic Services’ head for 2025-26 that was made for the Department of Economic Affairs under the finance ministry as per the revised estimate for the current fiscal presented in the 2026-27 Budget.

The Economic Stabilization Fund is to meet “un-anticipated expenditure arising in view of volatile global dynamics and uncertain global economic environment”, the Budget documents said.

Some of the other demands include a total of Rs 36,130.56 crore by the defence ministry for spectrum charges and Rs 6,140.80 crore under the Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme, Rs 23,641.28 crore by the Department of Food and Public Distribution to meet additional expenditure towards subsidies for Development Action Plan for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, Rs 1,703.44 crore as an inter-account transfers by the finance ministry to the Gold Reserve Fund for the Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme, and Rs 1,059.22 crore by the commerce ministry as Grants-In-Aid under the National Export Insurance Account.

The second supplementary demand for grants for 2025-26 comes after the Parliament had approved the first batch of demands in mid-December 2025. In the first batch, the Centre had sought to spend Rs 1.32 lakh crore more on a gross basis, with the net cash outgo being Rs 41,455.39 crore.