Cutting short the process in view of the coming Assembly elections, the Lok Sabha on Thursday voted demands for grants to the tune of over Rs. 46 lakh crore for fiscal 2011-12 without any discussion, completing the second stage of budgetary exercise.
The House also passed the relevant Appropriation Bill, 2011 after guillotine was applied on the debate on demands of grants of various ministries amid a walk-out by the Opposition which demanded resignation of the government over the alleged bribes for MPs’ votes in 2008.
The demands of only three of the over 80 ministries and departments were discussed in the few days that were available after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had replied to the general discussion on the budget last week.
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The demands of Ministries of External Affairs, Mines and Road Transport were the only entities that came under the scrutiny of the Lok Sabha.
Speaker Meira Kumar said the voting was being taken up straight away as “it is our responsibility to ensure timely completion of work.”
At this point, the Opposition, which was demanding a statement by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on WikiLeaks issue, walked out of the House.
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The Lok Sabha had earlier approved the supplementary demands for grants for 2010-11 completing the first stage of the budgetary exercise.
The Lower House proposes to take up Finance Bill, 2011 for discussion on March 22 and its passage by March 24, a day before Parliament will adjourn earlier than normal in view of the elections.
According to indications, Mr. Mukherjee may be making some announcements on its much-debated proposal of imposing 5 per cent service tax on ‘high-end’ medical service and extension of Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) to Special Economic Zone (SEZ) units and developers.