 |
Sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik makes a sand sculpture on upcoming Budget
2016 at Puri beach of Odisha. (PTI Photo)
|
The process that
begins with the presentation of the Budget and ends with discussions and voting
is a long one. With the government set to present the Budget for 2016-17 on
Monday, HT explains the constitutional and parliamentary intricacies of the
exercise:
All about the bills
Appropriation Bill
This is the law,
stipulated under Article 114 (3) of the Constitution, which the government uses
to make withdrawals from the Consolidated Fund.
Finance Bill
Every year the
government imposes new taxes, abolishes some old ones, changes regulation and
alters some existing income taxes. These are carried out by passing the Finance
Bill. Parliament has to pass the Finance Bill within 75 days of its
introduction.
What happens if it
isn’t?
It is seen as a
vote of no confidence against the government.
Money Bills
Bills that
exclusively contain provisions for imposition and abolition of taxes, for
appropriation of moneys from the Consolidated Fund, etc, are certified as Money
Bills.
Money Bills can
be introduced only in Lok Sabha. The Rajya Sabha cannot make amendments in
these but only recommend amendments and return the bills to Lok Sabha within 14
days of their receipt. The Lower House may then accept or reject these recomm
endations.
A money bill is
deemed as passed by both houses if:
1 Rajya Sabha does
not return them to Lok Sabha within 14 days.
2 Lok Sabha
rejects the recommendations of Rajya Sabha. In these cases, the bill is deemed
as passed in both Houses in its original form.
3 Lok Sabha
accepts some Rajya Sabha recommendations and re-passes the Bill. The revised
bill is deemed as passed in both houses.
Finance Bill and
Appropriation Bill are some categories of Money Bills.
Annual financial statement
The Annual
financial statement document shows the government’s estimates of earnings and
spending for the year, compared to the previous year. These are shown under the
three parts in which government accounts are maintained:
Consolidated Fund
Article 266 of
the Constitution mandates that Parliamentary approval is required to draw money
from the Consolidated Fund. All earnings of the government, its borrowings and
also repayment of past loans it has given, form the Consolidated Fund.
Contingency Fund
Article 267
mandates that Parliamentary nod is needed to draw money from Contingency Fund.
The present corpus of the Contingency Fund is Rs 500 crore. It is an imprest or
emergency pool of resources to meet urgent unforeseen expenditure.
Public Account
Government
holdings in trusts such as provident funds and money set aside for schemes such
as roads and education are kept in Public Account (Article 267). The Public
Account have to be paid back to depositor, so such expenses don’t need
parliamentary nod.
Demand for Grants
Article 113 of
the Constitution mandates that all expenditure from the Consolidated Fund be
voted on by Lok Sabha. The government submits its expenditure proposals in the
form of Demands for Grants, for the Parliament’s consideration
Each department places demands for grants, which
are placed in Lok Sabha along with the Annual Financial Statement.
Source: Hindustan Times
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday provided relief to small tax payers and nudged the affluent to shell out more while focusing on the rural economy with much higher fiscal outlays, as he presented India's national budget for 2016-17 in the Lok Sabha. A few points that stand out in this year's budget are:
