| Rot ruling roost within JK’s fiscal management? | | Anticipated savings not surrendered, provisions of various schemes unutilized | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Jan 10: Amid the cash starvation being felt in the public purse of Jammu and Kashmir at large, financial mismanagement like not surrendering anticipated saving galore without compunction.
Financial documents and their scrutiny, done later, reveal that as per the State Budget Manual, the spending departments are required to surrender the grants/appropriations or portion thereof to the Finance Department as and when the savings are anticipated. As per the available records, there were 33 grants and five appropriations under Revenue Section and 33 grants under Capital Section in which savings occurred. However, during the year no surrender in anticipation of savings was made by the concerned departments. Such a trend was observed in the year 2018-19. The savings in these cases was of the order of Rs 28,869.38 crore, which includes Rs 28,869.20 crore in 70 cases (involving 36 grants and four appropriation) where savings involved were Rs one crore and above or more than 20 per cent. As per J&K Budget Manual, the Controlling Officers are required to utilize the outlay under a head proportionately, as far as possible during the year. The rush of expenditure in the last quarter of financial year and more particularly in the last month of the financial year has to be avoided. Contrary to this, in respect of 28 grants, expenditure exceeding Rs 10 crore for the year was incurred during the last quarter of the financial year 2018-19. The percentage of expenditure in the last quarter ranged between 37 and 98 per cent of the Total Expenditure. An amount of Rs 31,630.44 crore exceeding Rs 10 crore in each case was incurred out of the Total Expenditure of Rs 72,777.59 crore in the last quarter, in 28 grants, constituting 43.46 per cent of Total Expenditure and an amount of Rs 13,685.70 crore constituting 18.80 per cent of the Total Expenditure of Rs 72,777.59 crore of the same grants was incurred 2019. Rush of expenditure during the last quarter, especially during the month of March, showed non-adherence to financial rules.
Furthermore, documents reveal that in as many as 23 number of grants involving 33 Major Heads, wherein an amount of Rs 9,382.68 crore was kept as provision for meeting expenditure under different heads/scheme, the entire provision remained unutilized during the past financial years. The government was later advised provision should have been re-appropriated to other schemes, where there was an excess expenditure over the provision. However, there is no confirmation pertaining to the issue about whether such provisions were kept later in the financial system of Jammu and Kashmir by the government. |
|
