“The ongoing war in West Asia and the Gulf region is causing a lot of volatility in various markets. To reduce the impact of such extreme volatility, this fund has been proposed,” a senior government official told businessline. More than half of the requirement of funds will be met through fresh cash outgo, while the remainder will come from savings, the document related to the second batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants (SDG) showed.
The second batch of SDGs seeks approval for gross additional expenditure of over ₹2.81 lakh crore. Of this, the proposals involving net cash outgo aggregate to over ₹2 lakh crore and gross additional expenditure, matched by savings of the Ministries/Departments or by enhanced receipts/recoveries aggregates to over ₹80,000 crore.
The government sought ₹19,230 crore for the fertilizer department and ₹23,641 crore for subsidies under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY). Other major expenditure heads include ₹41,822 crore for the Defence Ministry.
ICRA Chief Economist Aditi Nayar said, although the net cash outgo under the second supplementary demand for grants has been pegged at a sizeable ₹2 lakh crore, this is likely to be offset to a large extent by expenditure savings across ministries and thus will have no impact on the fiscal deficit.
Published on March 10, 2026