As per the spending guidelines, ministries and departments are required to make monthly or quarterly expenditure plans and cap it at 25% of Budget Estimates in each of the first three quarters. For the fourth quarter, it has to cap it at 33% of the BE and 15% in March.
“The guidelines have been reviewed..and it has now decided to relax the upper limit of 33% of BE as applicable for last quarter (Jan-March) of the current FY222, as a “one-time measure”, subject to the condition that ceiling of Revised estimates is not exceeded, the Department of Economic Affairs said in an memorandum.
It further said that for the items of capital expenditure, the ceiling of 15% of BE in the last month (March) for the fiscal is also relaxed and will be applicable with immediate effect, memorandum noted.
The move comes after several ministries and departments have reached out to the ministry for a relaxing expenditure limit for Q4 as many of them have spent only 50% so far.
These restrictions shall be observed both scheme-wise as well as for Demand for Grants as a whole.” This has been changed for the current fiscal, DEA said.
The Budget for FY22 provided Rs 5.54 lakh crore for capital expenditure which is 34.5% more than the BE of FY21.
As per the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) data, capital expenditure of 55 central ministries/departments with 101 Demands for Grants in April-November period has been around Rs 2.74 lakh crore which is 49.4% of BE (vs 58.5% in FY 21). This means, the government will have to spend the remaining 50.6% in the last four months of the current fiscal.
Those who reported lower capital spending in April-November period are Defence (Capital Outlay on Defence Service), DEA itself, power ministry, key infrastructure ministries such as Road Transport and Highways are among others.
