Grants and Funds in Indian Budget

The budget contains the ordinary estimates of income and expenditure in a financial year.  The parliament can make various other grants under extraordinary or special circumstances. These include:

1. Supplementary Grant: It is granted if the amount authorized by the parliament through the appropriation act to be expended for a particular service for the current financial year is found to be insufficient for the purpose of that year.

2. Additional Grant: It is granted when a need has arisen during the current financial year for supplementary or additional expenditure upon some new service not contemplated in the Budget for that year.

3. Excess Grant:  It is granted when money has been spent on any service during a financial year in excess of the amount granted for that year.  The demands for excess grants are made after the expenditure has actually been incurred and after the financial year to which it relates, has expired.  All cases involving such excesses are brought to the notice of parliament by the Comptroller and Auditor General through his report on the appropriation accounts. The excesses are then examined by the Public Accounts Committee which makes recommendations regarding their regularisation in its report to the House.

4. Vote of Credit:  It is granted for meeting an unexpected demand upon the resources of India when on account of the magnitude or the indefinite character of the service the demand cannot be stand with the details ordinarily given in an annual financial statement.

5. Exceptional Grants: It is granted for an exceptional purpose which forms no part of the current service of any financial year

6. Token Grant: It is granted when funds to meet proposed expenditure on a new service can be made available by re-appropriation, a demand for the grant of a token sum may be submitted to the vote of the House and, if the House assents to the demand, funds may be so made available.

Supplementary, additional, excess and exceptional grants and vote of credit follows the same procedure as the enactment of the budget.

Funds

The constitution provides for three types of funds for the central government. These are:

1. Consolidated Fund of India (Article 266)

It is a fund of the government of India, in which all receipts are credited and all payments are debited. It includes

(i) All revenues received by the Government of India

(ii) All loans raised by the government by the issue of treasury bills, loans or ways and means advances

(iii) Money received by the Government in repayment of loans

No money out of the Consolidated Fund of India shall be appropriated except in accordance with law and for the purposes and in the manner provided in this Constitution. That means, the payment can be made out of the Consolidated Fund of India only with approval of the parliament.

2. Public Account of India (Article 266)

All other public money received by or on behalf of the Government of India shall be entitled to the public account of India. The payment out of this account can be made without parliament appropriation as it is operated by executive action. Public account includes provident fund deposits, saving bank deposits, judicial deposits etc.

3. Contingency Fund of India (Article 267)

The constitution provides the parliament to establish a Contingency Fund of India. The parliament established Contingency Fund of India in 1950. This fund is placed at the disposal of the president to enable advances to be made by him out of such fund for the purposes of meeting unforeseen expenditure pending authorisation of such expenditure by the parliament. This fund is operated by executive action.