-By ArdorComm News Network
August 6, 2024
The Lok Sabha on Monday approved about ₹140 lakh crore in expenditure demands by different ministries of the Central Government, completing two-thirds of the legislative approvals needed for the full Budget of 2024–25.
The lower house, which last week debated the Budget, approved demands for grants as well as the Appropriation (No 2) Bill 2024, which authorizes the government to use certain sums out of the Consolidated Fund of India for the services of the financial year 2024-25.
This followed a guillotine being applied after a discussion on grants for four ministries — Railways, Education, Health, and Fisheries.
The Lok Sabha will now discuss the Finance Bill (No 2), 2024, which essentially contains the tax proposals in Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget for 2024–25.
The Rajya Sabha is also simultaneously discussing demands for grants for four other ministries — Agriculture, New and Renewable Energy, Cooperation, Housing, and Urban Affairs. It will also discuss the Finance Bill, but as per the Constitution, it can only return such bills to the Lower House.
The budgetary exercise will be complete after the passage of the Finance Bill (No 2), 2024, by the Lok Sabha.
While the guillotine is literally a large, weighted blade used for executing a condemned person, in legislative parlance, it means to bunch together and fast-track the passage of financial business. It is a fairly common procedural exercise in the Lok Sabha during the Budget Session.
Reference from Business Standard