Finance ministry likely to give additional Rs 25,000 crore for MGNREGS

But asks rural development ministry to identify and remove inefficiencies

The finance ministry is likely to accept the rural development ministry’s demand for an additional Rs 25,000 crore for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) for the current fiscal year (FY23), Business Standard has learnt. But given that for the past three years, the actual outlay has exceeded the Budget Estimates (BE) and for two years, it has been above or close to Rs 1 trillion, the finance ministry wants inefficiencies in the scheme to be identified and eliminated.

An additional Rs 25,000 crore will take the outlay for FY23 to Rs 98,000 crore, the same as