What is a vote-on-account?

What is a vote-on-account?
Vote-an-account literally means a vote on the accounts of the government. Usually, the annual budget is presented by the end of February after which it is discussed-details of the budget are scrutinized by a Parliamentary committee and it is finally passed by mid-May. However, this time, this could be in the middle of elections or another government could be in power depending on the election schedule.
During elections and till a new government takes over, the caretaker government needs funds for various routine items of expendirure-c-like staff salaries=-wiehout which there would be a financial crisis. According to the Constitution, the government cannot spend any money without Parliament's approval. Hence, vote­on-account is taken whereby a government gets parliamentary approval to run the government for a few months. using funds drawn from the Consolidated Fund of India.

How is a vote-on-account different from the fuU budget or an interim budget?
While the words vote-on-account and interim budget are often interchangeably used, a vote-on-account in the strict sense deals only with the expenditure side of the government's budget, whereas an interim budget has to include both expenditure and receipts. Generally, a vote-on-account is for two or three months. usually till the time it is replaced by a regular budget. It cannot be for a period longer than six months as the Constitution stipulates that the gap between two Parliament sittings cannot be more than six months. A regular full budget is a complete statement on the financial position of the government for a full year based on expenditures during the period and proposals for financing them. Thus, it gives details of how money is to be spent and how it will be raised by the government.

Why ever have a vote-on-account and not a full-fledged budget?
Constitutionally, there is no distinction between a caretaker government and a regular one. The government could technically present a full budget. However, by convention, a government that is at the end of its tenure opts for a vote-on-account since it is regarded as improper that an outgoing government should impose its policies on its successor. There is also the fear that in election years a full budget would tempt governments to resort to populism while ignoring financial prudence. Interim budgets have also been used by governments taking office just before the financial year begins to get Parliamentary approval" for immediate spending, giving them time to work out a more thought-out budget later in the year.

By convention, what are the restrictions on a vote-on-account?
Vote-on-account gives the revised estimates of expenditure incurred by the government and revised estimates of government revenue from different sources in the financial year coming to an end. These estimates provide an assessment of how efficiently the government spent its resources and how effective its policies of mobilizing tax and non-tax revenues were. Typically, no changes are made to tax and duty structures and no new schemes are announced. However, the govt can extend coverage or allocate more money to an existing scheme. The finance minister can also use the vote-on-account speech to give indications of what he would like to do if given an opportunity after the elections. Thus, it is often used to indicate his intentions on economic policy just before elections and he can make many promises, something most finance ministers have done in their vote-on-account speeches.