Plan expenditure touches 48.3%

Submitted bills, if uncleared, will be included in spillover projects, says official

The city Corporation’s Plan fund expenditure for the current financial year, with just about two weeks remaining, has touched 48.3%, as on Wednesday.

Taking into account the large number of bills pending in the treasury, the fund utilisation goes up to 58%, still a tad less than expectations, as project planning and implementation had begun much ahead of schedule this year compared to the previous years.

Faced with a fund crunch, the State government had recently imposed restrictions on the processing of bills submitted to the treasury by local bodies and various departments.

Limits have also been placed on the maximum amount that can be passed on bills submitted by contractors.

According to contractors’ union representatives, even bills submitted several weeks ago are now pending at the treasury. The contractors have made it clear that they will find it difficult to go ahead with some of the ongoing construction projects, if the bills already submitted are not cleared in time.

Tenders cleared

At the end of the previous financial year, the local body managed to spend only 65% of the funds, the lowest among all the Corporations in the State. “We hope to achieve more than 75% or even 80% this year. The submitted bills, if not cleared before the end of this month, will be included in the spillover projects. Much of the work on the various projects will not be affected by the elections as the tenders have already been cleared.

Initially, there was some delay in getting the projects off the ground owing to delay in providing technical sanction and issues that cropped up owing to the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). The contractors will all get their bills cleared,” said a Corporation official.