Union Budget 2026 | FAQs: What are supplementary grants?

With Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to present her ninth Union Budget presentation on February 1, DH is releasing a series of explainers for key terms that will be used in the Budget speech and what they imply for your wallet and the country's economy.

In this article, we discuss the supplementary grants.

The term Supplementary Grants refers to the additional grant amounts sought by the government during a financial year, over and above the amounts already authorised in the budget. Supplementary grants are required when the authorised funds are insufficient to meet the current expenditure.

The government presents these additional demands to the Parliament, which must be approved by the Lok Sabha. It is primarily required to meet expenses that cannot be deferred until the next financial year and were not foreseen when the original budget was formulated.

The need for supplementary grants can arise multiple times during a financial year, and they are usually presented with the monsoon and winter sessions of the Parliament.

Types of supplementary grants:

Additional Grant: Sought when a need has arisen during the current financial year for additional expenditure upon some new service not contemplated in the budget for that year.

Excess Grant: Requested when money has been spent on any service in excess of the amount granted for that in the budget.

Token Grant: Sought when funds to meet proposed expenditure on a new service can be made available by reappropriation of funds from the other grants, and the amount required is less than Rs 100. This grant is more of a procedural requirement to comply with the rules that no amount can be spent without the Parliament's approval.