Finance Bill 2020

The Lok Sabha on Monday, 16th March,2020; passed the Appropriation Bill 2020-21, authorising the government to draw over Rs 110 lakh crore from the Consolidated Fund of India for its working as well as the implementation of its programs and schemes.

This completes two-thirds of the exercise for approval of the Budget for 2020-21.

Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha had debated on 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 Rs 110.4 lakh crore during the financial year 2020-21 after Speaker applied 'guillotine' on demands of grants for various ministries.

With Parliament having very limited time for scrutinizing 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.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman moved the Appropriation Bill, which was passed by voice vote.

The Lok Sabha will now discuss the Finance Bill, which essentially contains the government's tax proposals.