The Opposition walk out on account of the ruling MDA Government’s intent to push through the budget with minimum discussion and without following rules 142 and 143 of the 74 page, “Rules of Procedure And Conduct of Business in Meghalaya Legislative Assembly, 2018, is unfortunate as the public is unaware of how public funds are spent. Rule 142 says the Budget shall be dealt with by the Assembly in two stages, namely :- (i) a general discussion, and (ii) the voting of demands for grants. Rule 143. (1) says, “On a day or days to be appointed by the Speaker subsequent to the day on which the Budget is presented and for such time as the Speaker may allot for this purpose, the Assembly shall be at liberty to discuss the Budget as a whole or any question of principle involved therein, but no motion shall be moved at this stage, nor shall the Budget be submitted to the vote of the Assembly.
But the voting for demand for grants was voted even before the Budget was fully presented. Audit reports for 2022-23 shows an unexpected expenditure of Rs 3439.41 crore. This is a violation of the fund approval threshold set by the State Assembly. This was pointed out in the latest C&AG Report and includes seven grants and one non-grant. The Appropriation Accounts which is a report on the Government’s spending well above the ‘charged’ or ‘voted’ amounts by the State Assembly from the Consolidated Fund showed that an amount of Rs 804.75 crore was spent without prior allocation. These are the areas that needed scrutiny within the Assembly Budget documents are not just about numbers. By scrutinising them, the public can learn the government’s intentions, priorities, policies, and financial resource distribution. The government is obligated to report on “what is done” and “how much is done” for the good of the people in the ‘Outcome Budget’ which Meghalaya does not appear to have or follow. The Outcome Budget was developed in 2005 to measure the outcomes of the schemes for which huge amounts are allocated.
The Meghalaya State Budget does not have a statement on Gender Budgeting which contains details about schemes that have 100 per cent allocation for women, or at least 30% allocation for women. How these women-specific schemes are implemented will indicate whether women are truly empowered. Schemes intended for the welfare of children too should be separately allocated and have measurable indicators. Article 203 of the Constitution mandates that the estimates of expenditure from the Consolidated Fund of the State are voted by the Legislature. The statements of these expenditures are to be presented to the Legislature in the form of Demands for Grants. Generally, one Demand for Grant is presented for each Department. However, more than one Demand can also be presented. Each Demand for Grants classifies the total expenditure into ‘voted’ and ‘charged’ and ‘revenue’ and ‘capital’ heads of account. The Appropriation Bill is the final document presented to the legislature for voting after which the state government is legally mandated to spend money from the Consolidated Fund of the State. Obviously, this procedure was given short shrift leading to a walk out by a discontented Opposition. This does not augur well for democracy.
