BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha government has asked all its departments to submit bills of Central sector schemes and Centrally sponsored schemes (CSS) for drawal of funds only after receipt of funds from line ministries of the Centre and not on the basis of sanction order.
The direction came after the Finance department noticed that the administrative departments are presenting bills in the treasuries for drawal of funds only on the basis of sanction order issued by the respective line ministries without checking the position of receipt of central assistance.
Issuing a new regulation for sanction and release of funds in terms of vote-on-account in 2024-25 for next four months, the Finance department has, however, made it clear that the administrative departments can incur expenditure to the extent of 50 per cent of the provisions or the annual allocation of the line ministries, whichever is less, during April-July period pending receipt of central assistance in case of urgent necessity for continuing the schemes.
The administrative departments have been allowed to incur expenditure for four months of the financial year beginning from April 1 to July 31 for which distribution of allocation must be over by April 30. The expenditure will be limited to 40 per cent of the provision under administrative and programme expenditure.
“There is no restriction on creation of new posts. But it would require prior concurrence of the Finance department. Similarly, no expenditure on a new scheme/programme is incurred until the demands for the whole year are passed by the Assembly,” stated the new regulation. While releasing funds, the departments will have to prioritise programmes/schemes where expenditure is reimbursable, completion of incomplete projects under zero-based investment review, state’s own flagship programmes and other resource tied up schemes under programme expenditure besides disaster risk management funds.
All collectors have been asked to submit a cash balance report to the Finance department by May 15 citing the amount of money drawn up to March 31 and not disbursed by April 30 to prevent parking of undisbursed funds.