And the Contingency Fund?
This is in the nature of an imprest. Put simply, this means if you start the month with Rs 100 in the fund and spend Rs 90 during the month, that Rs 90 will be replaced to bring the amount in the fund back to Rs 100. In this example, the maximum amount of money that can be spent Rs 100. You can only spend what you have and you are only given back what you spend, in this case Rs 90.
The Contingency Fund is kept at the disposal of the President of India to enable the government to meet unforeseen expenditure, which cannot wait for approval from Parliament.
The money is to be used to provide immediate relief to victims of natural calamities and also to implement any new policy decision taken by the Government pending its approval by Parliament.
In all such cases, after Parliament meets, a bill is presented indicating the total expenditure to be incurred on the scheme/ project during the current financial year. After Parliament votes on the bill, the money already spent out of the Contingency Fund is recouped by debiting the expenditure to the Consolidated Fund of India.
The Contingency Fund was set up under Article 267 of the Constitution of India. The corpus of this fund is Rs 50 crores (Rs 500 million). So what is the Budget?
Image: Jaswant Singh, as finance minister in the previous government, presented the last vote-on-account. | Photograph: Kamal Kishore/Reuters
Also read: 500,000 jobs lost in 3 months in India
| Live updates on money.rediff.com |
|
Advertisement
