An Appropriation Bill allows the Centre to incur

expenditure from the Consolidated Fund of India to

meet the expenses during the ongoing financial
year.

On March 22, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman moved the two

Jammu and Kashmir Appropriation Bills in the Rajya Sabha for
consideration.

The two Bills – Jammu and Kashmir Appropriation Bill,

2022 and Jammu and Kashmir Appropriation (No. 2) Bill, 2022 –
will allow the Centre to authorise payment and appropriation of
certain sums from and out of the Consolidated Fund of the Union
Territory for the services of the Financial Year 2021-22 and 2022-23
respectively.

What is the Jammu and Kashmir Appropriation Bill, 2022

In case of Jammu and Kashmir, the Bill was issued on October 31, 2019,
under section 73 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.
In October 2019, Section 73 Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act,
2019 was invoked and a proclamation was issued, whereby the operation
of several provisions of the said act was suspended, leading to the
suspension of the Assembly. Subsequently the governance of Jammu and
Kashmir came directly under the powers of the central government.

The Act, under Section 74 provides powers to the President to authorise

payment, if the assembly is dissolved or the functioning is suspended,
from the Consolidated Fund of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir,
pending the sanction of such expenditure by Parliament.

The sums authorised to be paid from and out of the Consolidated Fund of
the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir by this Act shall be
appropriated for the services and purposes (including revenue for general
administration, finance, law, social welfare, housing and other
departments) expressed in the Schedule to the said year.
Why was it introduced
A supplementary demand for grants was introduced by the Minister for
2021-22 for the amount of Rs 18, 860 crore. For 2022-23, the highest
allocation has been for the education department at Rs 11, 832 crore,
followed by Rs 10,830 crore for the home department and Rs 9,856 crore
for the public health engineering department. For the health and medical
education department, Rs 7,872 crore has been allocated.

In August 2019, the Central government had abrogated many provisions of

Article 370 resulting in revocation of the special status to the Union
Territory.

While taking up the Bill for discussion on the Budget of Jammu and
Kashmir, Ms. Sitharaman said 40,000 projects were completed in 2021-22.
“The Union Territory has witnessed a 90% decrease in ceasefire violations
as it reduced from 900 in 2020 to 98 in 2021,” she said, adding, “terrorism
has been contained and infiltration has declined significantly.”

Speaking on the investment front, she said, “Rs 44, 177 crore investment
proposals have already been received. Employment potential from that is
1.80 lakh, most of the investment proposals are from outside.”

“A whole lot of financial reform has taken place since 201. As per CMIE,
the rate of unemployment has reduced to 13. 2 percent,” she added.

Jammu and Kashmir Budget

On March 14, the Union Territory’s Budget was presented and passed by
the Lok Sabha.

The House passed the Budget totalling Rs 1.42 lakh-crore for Jammu and
Kashmir and also Supplementary Demands for Grants seeking additional
spending of Rs 18,860 crore for the Union Territory.

The capital expenditure is estimated to be Rs 41, 335 crore in 2022-23,

17.4 per cent higher than the revised estimates for this fiscal, while the
revenue expenditure is estimated to increase 6.5 percent to Rs. 71, 615
crore.