THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The financial crisis has forced the government to further tighten its restrictions on the treasuries as the Finance Department on Friday directed them to switch to “item-wise” clearance of bills. As per this, only bills under selected heads would be cleared.
The restriction until Friday was to defer bills above Rs 5lakh irrespective of the payment head. The latest restriction will affect more payments and worryingly, it could potentially delay all development works under plan and non-plan funds.
Thirty-one payment heads, have been exempted from the restriction. They include government’s HR-related payments, pension, payments related to disaster relief, Sabarimala pilgrimage, statutory and committed payments.Until September this fiscal, the total tax collection stood at Rs 20,659.12 crore as against the Rs 20,344.14 crore in the corresponding period in previous fiscal. The near-flat growth rate is attributed to the huge dip in tax revenue from liquor and fuel sales. The collection from liquor and fuel sales between April and September this financial year was Rs 7,834.75 crore as against the previous fiscal’s Rs 8,395.64 crore.