The State government has asked its departments to raise supplementary demands this financial year only for urgent projects as the demands raised since the BJP-led government assumed power in 2014 have reached ₹1,35,906 crore.
The Finance Department has issued a notification directing all departments to consider the limited resources available with the government before seeking additional grants to meet their expenditure. The notification said, “In a bid for better planning of funds, it is important to control the expenditure and therefore demands for only urgent and of utmost important projects, those ordered by the court and for Centre-sponsored schemes, should be raised.”
It has also mentioned the remarks from the Comptroller and Auditor General of India over non-expenditure of supplementary demands raised within the financial year in the past. “Only those supplementary demands which will be spent before March 31, 2019 should be presented,” it said.
The huge supplementary demand has also come under criticism from the Opposition. Nationalist Congress Party spokesperson Nawab Malik said, “This government lacks in financial discipline which has been proven in the past as well. It is only natural for the government to issue such instructions to departments. It is the same BJP which had accused us of financial indiscipline, but the reality is the opposite.”
The government had issued similar instructions regarding supplementary demands before the 2018 budget session of the State Assembly. It had cited a fund crunch owing to expenditure on the farm loan waiver and compensation given to municipal corporations for revenue losses following the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax.
