Deptts asked to vigorously pursue recoveries from public, private entities

Jammu, Mar 30: J&K government has directed its departments to review the revenue receipts of the past three years and vigorously pursue all receivables from public and private entities.

The departments have also been asked to ensure uniform pace of expenditure during the financial year 2024-25. It has been instructed that the overall ceiling of 30 percent expenditure should be maintained during the last quarter of the financial year 2024-25.

“The expenditure during the last month of the financial year 2024-25 shall be restricted to 15 percent of the budget allocation and no diversion shall be made under any pretext unless expressly authorized by the Finance Department,” was another important instruction by Principal Secretary, Finance department Santosh D Vaidya.

Besides, all the District Development Commissioners have been asked to furnish the District Plans (project, work, activity wise) after seeking approval of competent authority by or before April 30, 2024.

“The focus of the departments and DDCs must be on completion of ongoing and new works rather than starting large numbers of underfunded works or spreading of resources thinly over the number of years. The timeline for completion of new works or activities taken up for execution during the financial year 2024-25, should be between one to two years. In rare cases of mega-projects, the department may extend the timeline up to three years,” Vaidya ordered.

These instructions formed part of conditions stipulated for the utilization of funds under revenue and capex budget.

Sanction was accorded to the authorization of 50 percent of the interim budget (Vote-on-Account) 2024-25 under Revenue budget for the financial year 2024-25; except in respect of certain heads which would be released on a case to case basis.

Through a separate order, sanction was also accorded to the authorization of 50 percent of the interim budget (Vote-on-Account) 2024-25 under Capex budget including the district capex for the financial year 2024-25 in favour of all the departments and District Development Commissioners.

While making allocations and utilization of revenue budget, Vaidya stressed that the Controlling Officers should stress on the need for further rationalization and optimization of non-developmental expenditure and for protecting capital expenditure. Avenues of reducing non-priority revenue expenditure should be pursued consistently through rationalization or re-deployment of staff, cadre reviews, strict biometric attendance, adherence to    e-tendering or GeM in procurement, etc.

“The expenditure shall be made strictly in accordance with GFR 2017. Priority should be given to discharging any undischarged liabilities or dues, if any, so that the same are cleared expeditiously. All the directions given by Administrative Council and LG, the recommendations of the three conferences of the Chief Secretaries, the consultations with local government institutions and the feedback received by departments under B2V programmes, Public Darbar, Public Grievances meetings, etc should be reviewed while framing the annual plans and shall form part of budget outlays for 2024-25,” Vaidya said.

In case of funds released under Capex budget, he said that the release of funds through BEAMS as well as expenditure thereof would be subject to the uploading of works or activities on BEAMS portal as per the work plans duly approved by the competent authority for the year 2024-25.

The Director Finances, Directors Planning or Financial Advisor & CAOs or Joint Directors Planning and Controlling Officers of all the departments would be personally responsible for uploading approved work plans on BEAMS portal with the approval of competent authority by or before April 20, 2024.