Chandigarh, November 2
To get a first-hand account of the state’s fiscal health, the Aam Aadmi Party government has come up with detailed guidelines for “management of its revenue receipts and expenditure”.
Buying and hiring of new cars, foreign travel expenses, hiring of professional services, payment of interest and penal interest — these cannot be done now by the administrative secretaries concerned, unless these are first approved by the Finance Department.
Purchase of computer-related hardware and hiring manpower for the purpose, too, will require prior approval from the Department of Governance Reforms. A single sanction for any work cannot exceed Rs 25 crore, say the new guidelines.
Since AAP came to power, it has desisted from imposing any new taxes. It has, however, started giving 300 units of free power per month to domestic consumers.
While the guidelines issued by the Finance Department have brought in new rules and regulations for curbing expenditure by making each and every penny used in state accountable, the focus is also on asking all government departments to increase the state’s income. Officers in each department have been asked to fix monthly and quarterly targets for revenue collection and the administrative secretaries will have to monitor the fulfilment of these targets.
Each and every income of the state will have to be routed through the consolidated fund of the state.
“Departments which fail to achieve their targets for revenue collection will automatically face a reduction in budgetary allocations next year. The achievement and under-achievement of targets set forth for the officials shall be specifically remarked in their annual appraisal report,” say the guidelines.
In the first six months of the financial year, the revenue receipts are just 41.8 per cent of the target, while the revenue expenditure is 45 per cent of the target set for 2022- 23.
To curtail excess expenditure, the government has decided on phased spending of the budgetary allocations, with the departments being asked to spend 35 per cent and 20 per cent of the budget allocations in remaining two quarters of the fiscal, respectively. No department can seek additional money than what is allocated in the budget, no liabilities of government will remain unpaid for more than three months among others.
Revenue up, but less than expenditure spike
The guidelines come in the wake of burgeoning debt burden — nearly 68 per cent of fresh borrowings are being used by the state for interest payment — and a huge revenue deficitThe first six months of the current fiscal, which are also the first six months of Aam Aadmi Party rule in the state, have seen the revenue receipts increase, but the rise in receipts is lower than the spike in expenditure
