Centre removes month-to-month spend caps

To preserve the momentum of financial exercise amid the spike in Covid-19 infections, the federal government on Thursday introduced removing of quarterly and month-to-month expenditure ceilings for numerous departments with regard to capital expenditure.
The goal of the newest directive is to facilitate allocation of further funds from the Department of Economic Affairs’ discretionary corpus of Rs 44,000 crore to these departments who present good progress in capex.
The transfer is in distinction with the announcement of curbs on spending put final April when the pandemic broke out. “To enable ministries/departments expedite capital expenditure, the cash management guidelines issued by the ministry … stand relaxed. Monthly expenditure plan/quarterly expenditure plan ceilings and restrictions on bulk expenditure items referred to in the office memorandum dated August 21, 2017, shall not be applicable for expenditure under the capital heads under the budget,” the Finance Ministry mentioned. —FE