India / ₹13,109 cr recovered from assets sale of Nirav Modi, Mallya, Choksi: FM

New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said that banks have recovered ₹13,109.17 crore from asset sale of fugitives like Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi.

She said this while replying to a discussion on the second batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants which was approved by the Lok Sabha amid uproar by the Opposition over various issues.

The Supplementary Demands for Grants authorised the government to spend an additional ₹3.73 lakh crore during the current fiscal.

The extra spending includes an infusion of over ₹62,000 crore into the company that holds residual assets and liabilities of Air India, ₹58,430 crore by way of additional fertiliser subsidy, ₹53,123 crore towards payment of pending export incentives and ₹22,039 crore to rural development ministry for transfer to the National Rural Employment Guarantee Fund.

Speaking on the banks' recovery from wilful defaulters, she said that a total of ₹13,109.17 crore has been recovered from the asset sales of Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi as of July 2021 as per the information provided by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

The latest recovery was ₹792 crore from the sale of assets belonging to Mallya and others on July 16, 2021, she added.

Responding to various issues, including price rise, raised by the Opposition during the debate, she said the government is taking measures to cool down prices of edible oil and other essential commodities.

"We are taking measures through the EGOM (Empowered Group of Ministers) for taking care of essential goods. We will attend to the problem of edible oil price and also some of the essential edible items," she said.

"Public sector banks together have effected a recovery of about ₹5.49 lakh crore over the last seven financial years. So, these people who are defaulters, who have fled the country, we have got their money back and put it to the public sector banks and therefore the banks are safer today," she said.

She further said that the depositors' money are safer in public sector banks.

On the states' financial position, the Finance Minister said that the Centre in the first eight months of the fiscal has already transferred 86.4 per cent of what was provided in the full year 2019-20.

From the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF), "funds are being provided and providing an extra ₹15,000 crore for emergency COVID-19 response. The financial position of the states is also reflected in the fact that the overall cash balance of states as on November 30, 2021 was ₹3.08 lakh crore approximately, fairly comfortable positions", she said.

She further said that the states are having substantial cash balance with them and there are only a few exceptions.

Out of 28 states, she said, only two states are having negative cash balance.

Talking about Supplementary Demands for Grants, Sitharaman said that additional expenditure is of ₹ ₹3.73 lakh crore.

Of which, she said, ₹2.99 lakh crore is the additional cash outgo because of big ticket expenditure going for Air India and rise in fertilizer subsidy due to firming up of global prices.

"We have to ensure that the farmers don't suffer because of it (rise in global prices). And therefore, increase in the subsidy for fertiliser has been provided, which itself is accounting for ₹58,431 crore," she said.

Sitharaman also said that the government has so far paid around ₹93,685 crore since 2014 for oil bonds.

The government will have to pay till 2026 when oil bonds matures, she said.

Quoting former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, she said, "I would like the nation to remember that issuing bonds and loading deficits on oil companies is not a permanent solution to this problem. We are only passing our burden to our children who will have to repay this debt."

As per the Supplementary Demands for Grants, there would be net cash outgo of over ₹2.99 lakh crore, and ₹74,517 crore extra expenditure would be matched by savings by different ministries.

As per the document, ₹62,057 crore would be given to the Civil Aviation Ministry for equity infusion in Air India Assets Holding Company (AIAHL) for repayment of past government guaranteed borrowing and past dues/liabilities of Air India.

As per the supplementary demands for grants, an additional ₹2,628 crore would be given towards loans and advances to Air India for recoupment of advance from Contingency Fund of India.

Besides, the Department of Food and Public Distribution would be given an additional ₹49,805 crore for meeting expenditure towards various schemes of food storage and warehousing.

About ₹2,400 crore would be given to Department of Commerce for meeting expenditure towards subsidies under the 'Interest Equalisation Scheme’, and Investment under the Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECGC) scheme, among others.

Another over ₹5,000 crore and over ₹4,000 crore has been earmarked for additional spending by the ministries of Defence and Home, respectively.

The 2021-22 Budget had projected the government's total expenditure at ₹34.83 lakh crore. But this is expected to overshoot considering the two batches of supplementary demands for grants presented by the government so far.

The government had in August received Parliament nod for net additional spending of ₹23,675 crore in the first batch of supplementary demands for grants.