2.2.4. Demand for Grants
Demand for grants is a statement of estimated expenditure to be made out of consolidated fund of India. Article 113 of the Constitution mandates that the estimates of expenditure from the Consolidated Fund of India included in the Annual Financial Statement and required to be voted by the Lok Sabha are submitted in the form of Demands for Grants. The Demands for Grants are presented to the Lok Sabha along with the Annual Financial Statement.
♤ Generally, separate demands are made for the grants proposed for each Ministry.
♤ Each demand contains first a statement of the total grant proposed and then a statement of the detailed estimate under each grant divided into items. A demand becomes a grant after it has been duly voted.
♤ Two points should be noted in this context.
o One, the voting of demands for grants is the exclusive privilege of the Lok Sabha, that is, the Rajya Sabha has no power of voting the demands.
o Second, the voting is confined to the votable part of the budget—the expenditure charged on the Consolidated Fund of India is not submitted to the vote (it can only be discussed).
♤ Demands are required to be made in the form of a motion but in practice, they are assumed to have been moved and are proposed by the Chair to save the time of the House.
♤ During this stage, the members of Parliament can discuss the details of the budget. They can also move motions to reduce any demand for grant. Such motions are called as ‘cut motion’
A motion may be moved to reduce the amount of a demand in any of the following ways:
♤ 'that the amount of the demand be reduced to Re.1/-' representing disapproval of the policy underlying the demand. Such a motion shall be known as 'Disapproval of Policy Cut'. A member giving notice of such a motion has to indicate in precise terms the particulars of the policy which he proposes to discuss. The discussion is confined to the specific point or points mentioned in the notice and it is open to members to advocate an alternative policy;
♤ 'that the amount of the demand be reduced by a specified amount' representing the economy that can be effected. Such specified amount may be either a lump sum reduction in the demand or omission or reduction of an item in the demand. The motion shall be known as 'Economy Cut'. The notice has to indicate briefly and precisely the particular matter on which discussion is sought to be raised and speeches shall be confined to the discussion as to how economy can be effected;
♤ 'that the amount of the demand be reduced by Rs.100/-' in order to ventilate a specific grievance which is within the sphere of the responsibility of the Government of India. Such a motion shall be known as 'Token Cut' and the discussion thereon is confined to the particular grievance specified in the motion.
For the sake of convenience, usually the main motion for demand and the Cut Motion relating to it are put and discussed together in the House. Cut Motion, thus is a device to initiate the discussion on demand for grants and to uphold the principle of responsible government by probing the activities of the government. After discussion, first the cut motions are disposed off and thereafter, the demands for grants are put to vote of the House. Cut Motions are generally moved by members from the opposition, and if carried, amount to a vote of censure against the government.
In total, 26 days are allotted for the voting of demands. On the last day the Speaker puts all the remaining demands to vote and disposes them whether they have been discussed by the members or not. This is known as ‘guillotine’.
Other grants - In addition to the budget that contains the ordinary estimates of income and expenditure for one financial year, various other grants are made by the Parliament under extraordinary or special circumstances:
♤ Vote on Account- Only after enactment of Appropriation Act after it is assented to by the President, the payments can be made from the Consolidated Fund of India. Before 2017-18, this used to go on till the end of April. But the government needed money to carry on its normal activities after 31 March (the end of the financial year). To overcome this functional difficulty, the Constitution has authorized the Lok Sabha to make any grant in advance in respect to the estimated expenditure for a part of the financial year, pending the completion of the voting of the demands for grants and the enactment of the appropriation bill. This provision is known as the ‘vote on account’.