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New Delhi , Aug. 18

THE Lok Sabha on Monday passed supplementary demands for grants worth Rs 8,518.93 crore, inclusive of a loan write-off of Rs 1,573 crore to IFCI Ltd and an allocation of Rs 607.19 crore to the Agriculture Ministry for facilitating payments to sugarcane growers.

The demands and the relevant Appropriation Bill, introduced by the Finance Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, on August 7, was passed by voice vote without any discussion.

While the Rs 1,573-crore loan write-off amount to IFCI would not entail any cash outgo from the exchequer since it merely involves conversion of a 0.1 per cent interest bearing 20-year loan into a grant, the Rs 607.19-crore allocation for cane growers constitutes an explicit expenditure item. This amount would be used by the Agriculture Ministry to disburse loans to State Governments to enable them to pay the State Advised Price of cane declared by them for the 2002-03 crushing season.

The other demands that were passed also included Rs 3,650.25 crore to the Rural Development Ministry for the Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana, Rs 555.36 crore towards India's subscription to the International Monetary Fund in view of the country's re-emergence as a creditor, Rs 500.01 crore to the Urban Development Ministry to meet the additional expenditure of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation and Rs 200 crore for implementation of a price stabilisation fund for tea, rubber, coffee and tobacco.

The net cash outgo from the supplementary demands would work out to Rs 5,580 crore.

Meanwhile, the Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Mr Sharad Yadav, on Monday tabled a Constitution Amendment Bill to bring the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2003, within the purview of the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution. The ECA Amendment Act, 2003, had brought the regulated `release' mechanism for open sale sugar directly under the Act to impart teeth to the release orders issued by the Government. By bringing this Amendment Act within the purview of the Ninth Schedule, the release orders would receive added protection under Article 31 B of the Constitution and cannot be challenged by mills in a court of law.

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