The Finance department on Thursday sanctioned the utilization of 100 percent district capex budget 2018-19 allocations, inclusive of the 50 percent already utilized, in favour of all district development commissioners, except Leh and Kargil, during current financial year.
An order issued from the office of principal secretary finance department, Navin Kumar Choudhary, read, “Sanction is hereby accorded to the utilization of 100 percent district capex budget 2018-19 allocations (inclusive 50 percent already authorized) in favour of all the district development commissioners (except Leh and Kargil) during current financial year 2018-19, as per sector-wise details given in Annexure-A.”
“The authorization is subject to the fulfillment of nine conditions. These include that the funds so released shall be utilized only for the purpose specified after observing all codal formalities/procedures as required under rules, and shall not be available for further re-appropriation/diversion at any level and for any reason whatsoever,” the order read.
The second condition, as per the order, is that in accordance with the appropriation bill, district development commissioners shall ensure that all budget allocations have been maintained strictly and budget announcements are accommodated.
The order states, the third condition is that all the projects/schemes and infrastructure projects in particular, must be supported by technically vetted DPRs and must be prepared by the executing agencies in close consultation with user Agency. Only such works shall be authorized for execution, as have prior administrative approval, technical sanction and appropriate financial backup. All cost revisions must be sanctioned/ approved by the competent authority.
Further, the district development commissioners shall immediately release the funds to the line departments/executing agencies within a time period of 10 days, beyond which it shall be deemed to have been released. Besides, expenditure during the last quarter shall be restricted to not more than 30 percent of the budget estimates.
The sixth condition is that the authorization shall not be utilized for the schemes/projects approved for funding through JKIDFC, under the scheme ‘Languishing Projects’ and these projects/schemes shall be excluded from capex budget, henceforth.
Further, the authorization shall not be available to meet expenses for engagement of casual workers and need based workers by any department. The eight condition, as per the order, is that there shall be no expenditure on revenue or revenue-like items and the final condition is that the expenditure on this account shall be debited to appropriate head of account.