Gujarat government has decided to take action against the departments which show idle approach in spending current years budget grants. The finance department will allocate less grants for the upcoming fiscal year in proportionate to the grants parked at Gujarat State Financial Services Limited (GSFS). The current grant parked in GSFS by various departments isup to be around Rs. 22,000 crore.

Additional chief secretary in finance department Arvind Agrawal said, "We are very strict on utilisation of budget grants by departments. We have taken measures to ensure that departments utilise full grants by the end of the fiscal year and do not park the funds in GSFS. We are going to allocate less grants in upcoming year, if departments have not utilised their grants and parked them with GSFS."

"It is also observed that several budget grants allocated by Centre reach the state on closing dates of fiscal year so. However, there is exemption in that case and we allow departments to utilise those funds in the next year. We hope that departments will utilise their full grants by the end of current fiscal year though," added Agrawal. By the end of the third quarter on December 31, 2018, only 60% of total budget grants were utilised by all the departments altogether. Moreover, there are almost Rs. 22, 000 crore unspent budget grants that are parked in GSFS and it is likely that the amount may go higher this year.

Funds diverted from banks to GSFS

There was a trend among departments of government to park unutilised grants in ba-nks. The departments had been directed through the government resolution dated November 5, 2018, to deposit the amount of budget grants in GSFS in place of banks.

KNOW THE BUDGET

• The current grant parked in GSFS by various departments isup to be around Rs. 22,000 crore.  
• By the end of the third quarter on December 31, 2018, only 60% of total budget grants were utilised by all the departments altogether.