The additional amount could be part of the second batch of supplementary demands for grants for this fiscal which would eventually reflect in the revised estimate, the official said, adding that it could take the total outlay for 2023-24 to about ₹88,000 crore. Even for 2024-25, the interim Budget may allocate about ₹88,000 crore under the MGNREGS, officials had told ET earlier. In December 2023, the government had approved an extra ₹14,524 crore for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), on top of the budgeted Rs 60,000 crore, as part of its first batch of supplementary demands for grants for this fiscal. About ₹ 71,393 crore, or almost 96% of the revised outlay, has been used up so far this fiscal under the MGNREGS, a demand-driven programme, showed the latest data compiled by the rural development ministry.
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The first batch of supplementary demands for grants for 2023-24 included ₹ 10,000 crore in urgent assistance that the government had to release in October 2023 to meet increasing expenditure under the scheme. The Centre had spent ₹90,000 crore under the MGNREGS last fiscal and expected demand for unskilled jobs to decline this year amid heightened economic activity.
Also Read: If not you, your domestic help may be happy with the budgetHowever, a larger number of people sought work in the first three quarters of this fiscal than a year before, with experts blaming an erratic monsoon which prevented the usual migration of workers to farming and a tentative industrial recovery. An increase of up to 10.4% in the wage rate also inflated the expenditure under the scheme this fiscal. While demand eased for the second consecutive month in December, it didn’t offset the sharper increase until October.
