The Rajya Sabha on Tuesday approved the first batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants for 2025-26. This allows the Union Government to spend an additional ₹41,455 crore, including over ₹18,000 crore for fertilizer subsidy. The gross additional expenditure is ₹1.32 lakh crore, offset by ₹90,812 crore savings from Ministries and departments. Apart from fertilizer subsidy, ₹9,500 crore is allocated to the Petroleum Ministry to compensate oil marketing companies for losses. An extra ₹1,304 crore is set aside for the Department of Higher Education. Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said, “The expenses for fertilizers, and the use of fertilizers, particularly of urea, has increased. There is no shortage of fertilizers in the country.” He added, “Every month, the production of urea is being ramped up by around one lakh tonne per month.” He also talked about fiscal consolidation, noting the fiscal deficit fell from 9.2% in 2020-21 to a target of 4.4% in 2025-26. Chaudhary said allocations to States have increased under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. Opposition MPs accused the Centre of cutting State funds and discriminating against Opposition-ruled States. Congress member G.C. Chandrashekhar stated that despite ₹1.32 lakh crore extra allocation, States could not fully implement popular programmes due to non-release of funds. Aam Aadmi Party’s Raghav Chadha pushed for a Tokenisation Bill. He said, “Asset tokenisation is one of the most transformative technological financial innovations of the 21st century... This means that these big assets will not only be available for billionaires but for the common man of the country who can buy big assets and taste big returns.”