After revenue, Govt also releases Capex budget
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 2: With active involvement of Jammu and Kashmir’s Finance Department, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had stopped further payments of the bills at 2 pm on last day of the financial year 2020-21 leading to savings and financial discipline while the Department today released 50 percent Capex (Capital Expenditure) budget after 100 percent authorization of annual budget given by the Central Government.
Official sources told the Excelsior that with a view to prevent excess payments on last day of financial year 2020-21 on March 31, the RBI in consultations with the Finance Department of Jammu and Kashmir initially stopped all payments at 12 noon but later extended the timeline till 2 pm. No payments were released after 2 pm on the ground that there was no hurry and contractors etc can get the payments released in new financial year of 2021-22 which started yesterday.
“The pro-active measures by the Finance Department of Jammu and Kashmir Government and the RBI has not only resulted into financial discipline but also saved lot of funds,’’ sources said, adding the RBI and Finance Department were of the view that why contractors or others should rush for payments at eleventh hour of the financial year and not earlier. Moreover, they can wait for few more days and get their payments released in April.
It may be mentioned here that the Finance Department had in February this year rolled out e-Kuber payments system of RBI for Jammu and Kashmir which replaced existing system for purpose of payments.
Yesterday, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha had ordered release of 50 percent budget on first day of the financial year.
While the Finance Department had yesterday released 50 percent Revenue budget, today it also authorized expenditure of 50 percent Capex budget including district Capex for the year 2021-22 in favour of all Departments and District Development Commissioners.
An order to this effect was issued by Financial Commissioner (Finance) Dr Arun Kumar Mehta.
“Release of funds through Budget Estimation Allocation and Monitoring System (BEAMS) shall be subject to furnishing of Works Plan (project/activity-wise) duly approved by the Competent Authority,’’ the order read and said all Administrative Secretaries will furnish Works Plan.
In respect of district sector projects, CPO(s) and AO(s) of each district will be responsible for furnishing hard and soft copies of the Works Plan within stipulated time once the same is approved by the Competent Authority for uploading on BEAMS.
The Finance Department order said that spillover works which are already uploaded on BEAMS and are likely to be completed during 2021-22 should be first priority of the Works Plan while main focus of the Department/DDCs must be on outcome in terms of benefit to the public.
“Each work should be 100 percent physically verified and third party test inspections conducted in respect of high value works while photographs with Geo-tagging should be made available for uploading and record. The e-tenders will be invited for entire project cost. The Departments will initiate the e-tendering process immediately in the month of April 2021 and ensure that each e-NIT must be issued by or before 30th April 2021,’’ the order said, adding exercise of e-tendering should be carried out in a time bound manner and process concluded before May 31, 2021.
The Government has ordered the executing agencies to ensure that the component of land compensation must form the part of technically vetted Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) and funds for the component released as part of the project.
It further directed the Controlling Officers to immediately release the funds to the line departments within a period of one week from the date of authorization of funds by the Finance Department. The BEAMS Administrator at the Administrative Department will report compliance to the Finance Department on monthly basis.
“All procurements of Goods and Services shall be made through GeM portal in terms of relevant provisions of GFR 2017, manual for procurement of consultancy and other services 2017. No diversion will be made under any pretext unless expressly authorized by the Finance Department. All the Director Finance (s) and CAOs will monitor the expenditure statements on BEAMS and furnish them before 5th of following month for monthly review by the Finance Department,” the Finance Department order said.
It directed the Treasury Officers will ensure that releases have been made by Drawing and Disbursement Officers through BEAMS. They will also be personally liable for making any payment not authorized and accepted on BEAMS application.
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