Vote on Account uncertain

The next Parliamentary session is scheduled to be held on December 12 and thereafter only 19 days ( including Christmas holidays) left to conduct a debate and pass it in Parliament, Parliamentary office sources said.

In this context, it is very remote that the Government – without a majority - will be able to get a majority vote in Parliament to pass the Vote on Account, a high ranking official of the Treasury said.

If there was no settlement of the ongoing political crisis and in the event of Parliament is dissolved before it has allocated funds through the budget, then the President is empowered to authorise expenditure for the maintenance of public services for a period of three months from the date on which the new Parliament is scheduled to meet.

In the case of the President dissolving Parliament and calling an election when monies for the purpose has not been already allocated by Parliament, then the President may authorise the release of funds from the Consolidated Fund after having consulted the Commissioner of Elections.

The million dollar question under this set up is as to whether the Consolidated Fund could afford to release the required sum of money to meet the government expenditure as it has exhausted billions of rupees for supplementary estimates and authorised expenditure.

The Treasury will have to shuffle the balance money allocated to ministries for 2018 to tackle the difficult financial situation, the Treasury official said.

A sum of Rs. 760 billion is needed to maintain public services for the first four months in 2019, another Rs. 970 billion for the approved expenses and finally Rs. 5 billion for advance accounts of the government, he disclosed.