4. Voting on Demands for Grants

In the light of the reports of the departmental standing committees, the Lok Sabha takes up voting of demands for

grants. The demands are presented ministrywise. A demand becomes a grant after it has been duly voted.

Two points should be noted in this context. 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. 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).

Each demand is voted separately by the Lok Sabha. 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’, which are of three kinds: