Plan expenditure of local bodies slows down

Thiruvananthapuram: Local bodies in the state have attained 68.54% in plan implementation with two weeks remaining for the fiscal to end. Pending treasury bills have crippled the progress of plan expenditure in local bodies. The finance department has recently introduced a set of regulations for release of treasury bills which has resulted in accumulation of bills in treasury.
As per the latest statistics, 18,729 bills are pending in treasury and total treasury pending amount is Rs 599.52 crore. When maintenance grant is also included, the total pending amount will become Rs 917.13 crore. The local bodies estimate that plan expenditure would have crossed 70% by March first week had the bills been cleared promptly. The expenditure percentage including pending bills in treasury is 77.46.

Corporations have been at the bottom of the table in plan expenditure in the state. Six corporations have attained expenditure of 49.43% till date. The highest percentage has been attained by grama panchayats with 75.43%. The total budget of local bodies is Rs 6,721.91 crore of which Rs 4,607.3 crore has been spent. tnn