FinMin initiates exercise for interim budget

Gearing up for the presentation of interim budget, Finance Ministry has asked different central government departments to come up with their demands by January 10.
The third and final batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants for 2013-2014 (excluding Railways) is proposed to be presented to Parliament in the forthcoming Budget Session.
Since the general elections are scheduled to be held by May 2014, the government would be presenting a vote-on-account or interim budget instead of the regular full fledged Budget ahead of the scheduled date of February 28.
The regular Budget is likely to be presented by the new government sometime in July.

The Finance Ministry, in a communication to different ministries, said: "under no circumstances should the RE (revised estimate) ceilings be breached".
While seeking supplementary grants, the ministries have been asked to ensure that the expenditure for 2013-2014 has to be contained within the RE level.

"Instructions relating to 33 per cent and 15 per cent expenditure ceilings in the last quarter and last month respectively of the financial year may be scrupulously followed," it added.
Through the Second Batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants, the government had got Parliament's nod for Rs 18,594.27 crore additional spending in the current fiscal to meet expenditure, mainly towards petroleum and fertiliser subsidies.

The Finance Ministry further said while processing proposals for Supplementary Grants, the Grant controlling authority must invariably identify savings available within the Grant so that the infructuous or inflated Supplementary Demands are weeded out and the eventuality of surrender after obtaining Supplementary Grant is avoided.
Further, it said, supplementary demand should be sought for the minimum necessary amount but it should be sufficient to cover any foreseeable excess.
In order to ensure that this fine balance is met, it would be necessary to keep the expenditure under close watch on a daily basis and promptly inform the Finance Ministry if there is a significant variation requiring correction in the proposals.

"We will try our best to accommodate requests for changes keeping in view the tight schedule of printing of Supplementary Demands, which happens to overlap with the work of preparation of annual Budget documents," the Ministry added.