Centre removes monthly spend caps

To keep the momentum of economic activity amid the spike in Covid-19 infections, the government on Thursday announced removal of quarterly and monthly expenditure ceilings for various departments with regard to capital expenditure.

The objective of the latest directive is to facilitate allocation of additional funds from the Department of Economic Affairs’ discretionary corpus of Rs 44,000 crore to those departments who show good progress in capex.

The move is in contrast with the announcement of curbs on spending put last April when the pandemic broke out. “To enable ministries/departments expedite capital expenditure, the cash management guidelines issued by the ministry … stand relaxed. Monthly expenditure plan/quarterly expenditure plan ceilings and restrictions on bulk expenditure items referred to in the office memorandum dated August 21, 2017, shall not be applicable for expenditure under the capital heads under the budget,” the Finance Ministry said. —FE