By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, July 16, 2018: Constrained by resource limitations, Odisha government has virtually been forced to opt for an ‘adjustment budget’ in this fiscal instead of its usual Supplementary expenditure provision.

In a letter to all department secretaries, principal secretary, finance Tuhin K Pandey has clearly indicated that the government would make a departure from past practices of usual supplementary expenditure provision to a simple adjustment budget.

“Supplementary Statement of Expenditure, 2018-19 is proposed to be purely an adjustment budget in which the administrative departments would be allowed to augment the provision in one unit only by locating equivalent savings in some other unit of expenditure,” Pandey said in the letter.

The state’s expenditure suddenly has gone up due to implementation the recommendations of the Seventh Pay panel. The state government has been paying salaries and pension to its staff in revised scale, keeping to the provisions of the Seventh Pay Commission from October 1 last jacking up the salary payout while the revenue collection has not widened. In fact, till now the state government has been able to pay off only 40 per cent arrears in salaries while clearing the pension backlog completely.

“Supplementary proposal should not be prepared in a routine manner; but should receive the personal attention of the concerned estimating and controlling officer so that the proposals are based on actual need and should commensurate with their actual spending capacity”, Pandey said.

Earlier, the state government has put in place a Cash Management System which mandates the administrative departments to spend at least 60 per cent of the budgeted funds by December end. The system contains the spending in the last quarter of any fiscal to 40 per cent.

The latest guidelines from the state finance department with respect to Supplementary provision have come with a rider. Those departments with expenditure below 20 per cent of the budget outlay (as on June 30) are not eligible for availing the additional funds.