The Speaker, pointing out the defect in the Budget, posed a question to the Finance Minister: “May we have to take it that the Budget has not been placed properly”, and asked the Finance Minister to give his views on the “defects”. The Minister then took time to reply to the query. He then adjourned the House till tomorrow when he will give his ruling.

The Speaker said that in the Budget under grant 42, a sum of Rs 25 lakhs had been shown as a non-recurring grant, and should, therefore, be treated as a “new expenditure”.

But in the Budget it has not been shown under the head “new expenditure”. The significance of this was that the members would lose their right of voting if it was not considered a new expenditure.

“The question is that the Budget, which has been presented in that defective form, cannot be considered as properly presented before the House,” the Speaker said. He further said that Article 40 of the Constitution defines “new expenditure”. Article 40 (Four) (B) lays down that any expenditure other than recurring expenditure falls within the definition of new expenditure. But in the Budget the money under head grant 40 has been shown as non-recurring. — Correspondent