Indian Polity Quiz: Financial Procedure in Parliament

The correct answer is B, Article 112. Article 112 requires the President to cause a statement of the estimated receipts and expenditure of the Government of India for every financial year to be laid before both Houses of Parliament, and the Constitution calls that statement the Annual Financial Statement; in ordinary speech it is the Budget. A is wrong because Article 110 only defines what a money bill is and lists the six matters a money bill may deal with; it says nothing about the Budget being laid before the Houses. C is wrong because Article 114 deals with the Appropriation Bill, the law by which money is actually withdrawn from the Consolidated Fund of India after the grants have been voted. D is wrong because Article 117 carries the special provisions for financial bills, chiefly that they are introduced in the Lok Sabha on the recommendation of the President.

The correct answer is C, the salary and allowances of the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is paid like other ministers out of the voted expenditure, so the amount appears in a demand for grant that the Lok Sabha can reduce or refuse; it is not charged expenditure. A is wrong because Article 112(3) expressly charges the salaries, allowances and pensions of judges of the Supreme Court on the Consolidated Fund, so that the judiciary is not dependent on an annual vote. B is wrong because debt charges, including interest, sinking fund charges and the cost of raising and servicing loans, are charged expenditure, since the nation's credit cannot be put to a yearly vote. D is wrong because the salary, allowances and pension of the Comptroller and Auditor General are charged on the Fund, a safeguard of the independence of the auditor who examines the government's own accounts.

The correct answer is B, 14 days. Under Article 109 a money bill passed by the Lok Sabha goes to the Rajya Sabha, which must return it within fourteen days with or without recommendations; if it is not returned in that period the bill is deemed to have been passed by both Houses in the form in which the Lok Sabha passed it. The Lok Sabha is free to accept or reject any recommendation the Rajya Sabha makes. A is wrong because no financial stage of a bill is fixed at seven days. C is wrong because twenty-one days has nothing to do with a money bill; it is the period often confused with the time limits in other legislative provisions. D is wrong because thirty days is not a constitutional period for a money bill either; candidates sometimes mix it up with the six months the Rajya Sabha may hold an ordinary bill before a deadlock arises.

The correct answer is B, reduced by one hundred rupees. A token cut is moved to ventilate a specific grievance within the sphere of responsibility of the Government of India, and its form is that the amount of the demand be reduced by one hundred rupees; the sum is symbolic and the purpose is the discussion it forces. A is wrong because reducing the demand to one rupee is a policy cut, which expresses disapproval of the policy underlying the demand itself. C is wrong because a reduction by a specified amount for the sake of economy is an economy cut, where the member suggests that the same work can be done more cheaply. D is wrong because no cut motion asks for a demand to be withdrawn; the Lok Sabha can of course refuse a demand outright by voting it down, but that is a refusal of the demand, not a cut motion.

The correct answer is C, the President of India. Article 267(1) allows Parliament by law to establish a Contingency Fund of India in the nature of an imprest, placed at the disposal of the President, out of which he may make advances to meet unforeseen expenditure pending authorisation by Parliament; the fund is held on his behalf by the Finance Secretary and is recouped once Parliament votes the money. A is wrong because the Prime Minister has no separate constitutional custody of any fund of India. B is wrong because the Speaker presides over the Lok Sabha and certifies money bills but holds no fund. D is wrong because the Comptroller and Auditor General audits spending after it happens and is deliberately kept out of the custody and sanction of money, since an auditor cannot audit his own payments.

The correct answer is B, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha. Article 110(3) provides that if a question arises whether a bill is a money bill, the decision of the Speaker of the House of the People is final, and the Speaker certifies the bill as such when it is transmitted to the Rajya Sabha and when it is presented to the President. A is wrong because the President's recommendation is needed to introduce a money bill, but he does not classify it. C is wrong because the Finance Minister introduces financial legislation and defends it, yet the character of the bill is not his to settle. D is wrong because the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha presides over the House that has the least say in a money bill; giving him the certifying power would defeat the very purpose of the Lok Sabha's financial supremacy.

The correct answer is B, the Public Accounts Committee. An excess grant is asked for when money has actually been spent on a service during a financial year in excess of the amount granted for it; the demand is made after the year is over, and by convention the Public Accounts Committee first examines the excess and recommends its regularisation before the Lok Sabha votes it. A is wrong because the Estimates Committee looks forward, suggesting economies in the estimates, and does not regularise past overspending. C is wrong because the Committee on Public Undertakings confines itself to the reports and accounts of public sector undertakings. D is wrong because the Business Advisory Committee only allots time for government business in the House and has no financial examination role at all.

The correct answer is A. The Speaker, in consultation with the Leader of the House, fixes the number of days available for the demands for grants, and on the last of those days all the demands still pending are put to the vote together, discussed or not. That closure by the clock is called the guillotine, and in practice a large part of the Budget is passed this way. B is wrong because a return for reconsideration under Article 111 applies to an ordinary bill and is never called the guillotine. C is wrong because an early dissolution of the Lok Sabha is ordered by the President on the advice of the Council of Ministers and is a wholly different matter. D is wrong because the suspension of a member is a disciplinary step taken by the Chair under the rules of procedure, not a device for disposing of financial business.

The correct answer is B, Article 265. It states in a single sentence that no tax shall be levied or collected except by authority of law, which is why every tax proposal in the Budget has to be enacted through the Finance Bill before the money can be demanded from the citizen. A is wrong because Article 245 deals with the extent of the laws made by Parliament and by the state legislatures, that is, the territorial reach of legislation. C is wrong because Article 280 provides for the Finance Commission, which recommends the distribution of tax proceeds between the Union and the states. D is wrong because Article 300A says no person shall be deprived of his property save by authority of law, a right to property provision inserted by the Forty-fourth Amendment and often confused with the taxation Article.

The correct answer is B, 22 members. The Public Accounts Committee consists of twenty-two members, fifteen elected by the Lok Sabha and seven by the Rajya Sabha, all by proportional representation through the single transferable vote, and its chairman is appointed by the Speaker; by a convention followed since 1967 the chairman is from the opposition. A is wrong because fifteen is only the Lok Sabha share of the committee. C is wrong because thirty is the strength of the Estimates Committee, whose members are all drawn from the Lok Sabha and none from the Rajya Sabha. D is wrong because thirty-one is the strength of each departmentally related standing committee, made up of twenty-one members of the Lok Sabha and ten of the Rajya Sabha.