Slow capital spending to hasten presentation of revised estimates

HARYANA GOVERNMENT WILL CONVENE A SESSION OF THE STATE ASSEMBLY NEXT MONTH TO PRESENT THE REVISED ESTIMATES

CHANDIGARH : The Haryana government will convene a session of the state assembly next month to present the revised estimates for 2018-19.

An official spokesperson said the state finance department would present the revised estimates in December instead of March to enable the departments to utilise the allocated funds in a more effective manner during the current fiscal itself.

The decision taken at a meeting to review the receipts and expenditure of major departments by chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar was the outcome of tardy capital spending by major departments.On Wednesday, all departments were asked to furnish the requisite information regarding the revised estimates within one week.

The finance department also sought data of unspent amount of different departments to keep a check on the parking of funds in different banks accounts.

As per the earlier practice, the revised estimates of the budget were finalised every year during February or March.

During the budget address for 2018-19, it was mentioned that all the government departments would have to keep a single bank account to avoid parking of funds.

It was also informed that a dashboard of banks is also being prepared which would provide information about the name of bank branch and number of bank accounts being operated by the departments.

While directing the departments to implement the chief minister’s announcements made during 2018 at the earliest, Khattar asked the administrative secretaries to personally review the progress of the works once a week. The ministers were also asked to hold similar review meetings to see the progress of works related to their departments and if required, he himself would review the chief ministers’ announcements of major departments.

Khattar said the budget is pivot of all activities and asked the departments to make optimum utilisation of funds. He reviewed various departments .