Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Nov 19:
Hard pressed to contain fiscal deficit, the Finance Ministry has directed that no fresh funds should be released to autonomous bodies or NGOs in the absence of utilisation certificate of the money provided to them in the past.
“…It has been decided that Grants-in-aid should not be released to any autonomous body or NGO or any other organisation/institution (other than State Governments) if it has not submitted all Utilisation Certificates due to rendition,” Finance Secretary R S Gujral said in an Office Memorandum.
He further said that this directive would come into force with immediate effect and has asked the secretaries of different ministries and departments to seek specific approvals for any deviation from the guidelines.
The expenditure compression directive will have implications for the agencies, which receive grants-in-aid from Central Government Ministries for implementing State-sponsored schemes, programmes and projects.
The directive follows the pre-budget consultations, which the Finance Ministry had with other ministries and departments with regard to steps to ensure fiscal prudence and rationalisation of expenditure.
In view of subdued revenue collection and rise in fuel and food subsidy bills, the Finance Ministry has already increased the fiscal deficit target for 2012-13 to 5.3 per cent of the GDP (gross domestic product) from 5.1 per cent estimated in the budget.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram had already indicated that steps would be taken to restrict the fiscal deficit, which is the difference between total receipts and expenditure, to 5.3 per cent. (PTI)
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