Parliament passes demand for grants
1 min read 23 Mar 2023, 11:24 PM ISTThe passing of the Appropriation Bill completes almost two-thirds of the budgetary exercise by the Lok Sabha.
PremiumNew Delhi: The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the Demand for Grant and Appropriation Bill, 2023 without any discussion as Opposition members continued to demand a joint parliamentary committee probe into allegations against the Gautam Adani group.
With this, the government has taken parliamentary approval to draw a sum of ₹144 trillion from the Consolidated Fund of India for its work, implementation, programmes and schemes presented as part of the budgetary expenditure for FY24. The passing of the bill also clears the government’s expenditure of about ₹45 trillion as provided in Budget 2023-24.
The Lok Sabha took up the Bills after two earlier adjournments as the opposition and the treasury benches pressed their demands -- the former on the Adani probe and the latter for an apology by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his comments on Indian democracy at an event abroad.
The passing of the Appropriation Bill completes almost two-thirds of the budgetary exercise by the Lok Sabha.
The government is expected to secure parliamentary approval for Finance Bill, 2023, on Friday, completing the legislative exercise for implementing the budgetary proposals. The Finance Bill contains the tax proposals of the government for FY24.
The Appropriation Bill, 2023 authorising payment and appropriation of ₹144.27 trillion from the Consolidated Fund of India for 2022-23 was introduced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
It was approved by voice vote as discussion on the bill could not proceed amid sloganeering from the Opposition benches.
