Prod to utilise budget allocations

Bhubaneswar: The finance department has said that it will not consider proposal for additional funds in the supplementary budget from departments for programmes/schemes where expenditure is less than 40% till September.
The finance department’s move assumes significance in relation to expediting spending by various departments out of the allocations made in the annual budget.
According to official sources, the total expenditure by various departments till August 2022 is 24% of the budget estimates for 2022-23 compared to 28% in the previous financial year.
“The expenditure needs to be expedited, while enhancing the capacity at the execution level to increase the pace of expenditure particularly capital expenditure to enhance the level of economic activity,” said a circular of the finance department.
Earlier, as many as 20 major spending departments of the state government had been asked to spend at least 60% of the total budget in the first three quarters of 2022-23.