The Lok Sabha on Monday 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.

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 and 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.

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.

This year, the Lok Sabha discussed demands for grants of ministries of tourism, railways and social justice and empowerment.

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