Andhra plans ordinance route to meet govt expenditure

Hyderabad Instead of presenting the full budget, the Andhra Pradesh government is likely to take the ordinance route to seek a vote-on-account for the initial few months of the financial year 2021-22 to meet the government expenditure, citing the impending by-poll to the Tirupati Lok Sabha seat on April 17 as reason

Hyderabad Instead of presenting the full budget, the Andhra Pradesh government is likely to take the ordinance route to seek a vote-on-account for the initial few months of the financial year 2021-22 to meet the government expenditure, citing the impending by-poll to the Tirupati Lok Sabha seat on April 17 as reason. If this happens, it will be the second year in a row that the state has had to resort to the ordinance route.

HT Image

It is mandatory for the state assembly to approve the annual budget for the upcoming financial year and ensure passage of the Appropriation Bill before the closure of the current financial year on March 31.

With barely two weeks left, the Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSRCP  government is yet to take any decision on the budget session of the state assembly.

“We have not yet taken a call on the budget session of the assembly but it is unlikely that the session will be held under present circumstances (before the by-poll),” senior YSRCP leader and government chief whip in the state assembly G Srikanth Reddy said.

He added that holding the session before the election would cause inconvenience not only to the government but also the opposition parties.

“We are also insisting on the completion of the elections to the zilla parishad and mandal parishad (block parishad) at the earliest. Amidst the elections, it may not be possible to hold a full-fledged budget session,” he said.

The only option left before the Jagan government is to promulgate an ordinance through the Governor under Article 213 (1) of the Constitution of India for the adoption of a vote-on-account budget for appropriation of money and release of approximate budgetary allocations for at least three months.

An Appropriation Bill gives power to the government to withdraw funds from the Consolidated Fund of India for meeting the expenses during the financial year. Without the passage of this bill in the assembly, the state government will not be able to withdraw any money from the exchequer from April 1 for the implementation of various welfare programmes and payment of salaries to the state employees.

The state cabinet is expected to meet next week to adopt a draft ordinance to pass the vote-on-account for the first three months of the new financial year and get it approved by Governor Biswa Bhushan Harichanan.

“Instead of rushing through the budget, we can have a full session at a later date and the budget can be passed after a thorough discussion in the House,” the chief whip said.

Last year too, the Jagan government was unable to convene the budget session in early March as it was planning to hold the same in the last week after the completion of elections to urban and rural local bodies.

The state election commission, however, deferred polls in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and before the government could decide anything, the Union government declared a nationwide lockdown.

Subsequently, the government promulgated an ordinance for the vote-on-account for three months. In the second week of June, it held a short two-day session to adopt the budget.

The Governor later addressed the joint session of the assembly and council through video-conferencing mode.

However, the appropriation bill, which was passed by the assembly, was withheld in the legislative council. Two weeks later, the bill was deemed to have been passed and the Governor gave his assent to the same.

In Telangana, the budget session for the upcoming financial year began on March 15. The government tabled the budget on Thursday and is now preparing for a debate on the same from Saturday.