Finance Ministry issues guidelines to departments for better fiscal management

New Delhi, Aug 4 For better fiscal management, the Finance Ministry today asked various departments and ministries to stick to their expenditure plans while making prior-approval from the budget division mandatory for any single payment release of over Rs 5000 crore.

Notifying guidelines for more effective cash and expenditure management of the government, the Finance Ministry said, "Practice of expenditure beyond quarterly expenditure plans (QEP) without prior approval of Secretary( Expenditure) would be viewed adversely."

"Prior permission from Budget division shall be pre- requisite for any single payment release in excess of Rs 5,000 crore. The Financial Advisers (FAs) must guard against attempts to deliberately split expenditure to stay within limits," the guidelines said.

To bring about more effectiveness and efficiency in cash management system, the government in May constituted a committee headed by Joint Secretary (Budget) with members from office of CGA, RBI and Budget division.

Based on deliberations of the committee with financial advisers of some key ministries representing infrastructure, social and economic sector, the guidelines have been issues, the Finance Ministry said.

The guidelines will "help avert situation of temporary mismatches in cash outflows and inflows, prevent additional transitory borrowing through treasury bills... help save on interest expenses", the ministry said.

PTI