THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the state severely short of funds, the finance department has asked government departments to take the unprecedented step of keeping the expenditure of 2017-18 at the level of the ongoing fiscal. A 17-20 per cent annual growth in expenditure is an accepted norm. This never-before attempted austerity will mean belt-tightening in all spheres of activity, from maintenance to foreign travel to purchase of vehicles.
Departments have also been asked to draw up a list of surplus staff to be retrenched. This will also mean the dropping of uneconomical schemes and deferment of certain measures including maintenance expenditure. Even new schemes will not be provided ‘lump sum’ allocations in the Budget. “The success of the exercise depends to a large extent on the personal involvement of the head of department, who should go through each and every unit of appropriation and then identify the area where the downsizing has to be made,” a top finance department official said.
In other words, the Department does not want Budget preparation to continue as what the official said “a mechanical incremental exercise”. The official said that the attempt should be to assess the precise requirements with reference to all available data. “The revised estimates proposed for the ongoing fiscal (2016-17) should form the basis for preparing budget estimates for the coming year. For instance, if the current year estimates provide for any non-recurring items of expenditure, say office furniture, a corresponding reduction should be made in the Budget Estimates for the coming year," he said.
If at all there is a variation, it should be "clearly and precisely" explained. "Otherwise any proposed increase will not be considered," the official said. Economy measures threaten to create a situation of under-employment. There will be hundreds who will be without work once certain schemes or activities are dropped or deferred. "There will be surplus staff that, however, cannot be retrenched," the officer admitted. "The heads of departments have been asked to prepare a complete list of such staff declared as surplus and keep such a list ready for future use, so that they can be absorbed in arising vacancies," the official said.
