The Punjab government, while deciding to reduce wasteful expenses, has recently taken pledge to raise the expenditure limit of the different departments in the first half of the financial year 2023-24. The focus would be on the priority areas that have social and economic multiplier effects. It has been aimed at speeding up developmental work.
According to two senior bureaucrats, the state government permitted departments to spend up to 50% of their budgetary allocation in the initial six months of this financial year. This is higher than the expenditure limit set for the same period of the previous year.
As per the orders, the government has given instructions to the departments to ensure that the expenditure is incurred within the budgetary allocations approved in the budget estimates for the current fiscal and proper specific clearance in case of any additional fund requirement should also be taken in time.
The finance department has sent detailed guidelines on the management of state finances recently to all administrative secretaries and heads of departments. The guidelines state that any expenditure, incurred in excess of the budgetary allocation provided in 2023-24, should be without the explicit prior approval of the finance department will entail strict disciplinary action against the authority sanctioning such expenditure. The state government has mentioned a raise of 17% in tax revenue and 29% in its own non-tax revenue in the 2023-24 budget. The finance department has instructed all senior officers to meet their tax and non-tax revenue targets, warning that the department, which fails to achieve the targets without “reasonable justification,” may face a reduction in its budgetary allocation.
