Focus: GS-II Governance, Prelims
Why in news?
- The Lok Sabha on 16th March 2020 passed the Appropriation Bill 2020-21, authorising the government to draw over ₹110-lakh crore from the Consolidated Fund of India for its working as well as implementation of its programmes and schemes.
- This completes two-thirds of the exercise for approval of the Budget for 2020-21.
Details
- The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha had debated on Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s second Budget in the first half of the current session.
- In the second part, the lower house of Parliament passed the Appropriation Bill.
- In the third stage, the Finance Bill, which details the tax proposals, will be discussed and approved.
The house passed the Appropriation Bill, envisaging spending of ₹110.4-lakh crore during the financial year 2020-21 after Speaker Om Birla applied ‘guillotine’ on demands of grants for various ministries.
What is Guillotine?
- Guillotine refers to the exercise which the Speaker of the House, on the very last day of the period allotted for discussions on the Demands for Grants, puts to vote all outstanding Demands for Grants at a time specified in advance.
- The aim of the exercise is to conclude discussions on financial proposals within the time specified.
Why Guillotine?
- With Parliament having very LIMITED TIME for scrutinising the expenditure demands of all the ministries, it takes up discussion on spending or demands for grants for a few ministries during a pre-decided period of time.
- Once this is over, a guillotine is applied.
- Once the Speaker applies the guillotine, all the outstanding demands for grants, whether discussed or not, are put to vote at once and passed.
- After this, Appropriation Bill was taken into consideration and passed.
