Additional funds can’t besought in revised budget

Mahfuja Mukul: The Ministry of Finance has started working on the revised budget for the current fiscal year 2023-2024 by including the condition of not allocating additional funds. No ministry can ask for additional allocation in the revised budget. Besides, the Ministry of Finance is preparing revised budget in the light of the circulars issued at various times to achieve austerity in government expenditure in the context of the current global economic situation.
In this regard, the Ministries, Departments, other institutions and Directorates/Departments/Departments under their jurisdiction, autonomous/semi-autonomous bodies, public sector corporations, state-owned companies and institutions have been instructed to prepare revised budgets for the current financial year. All Ministries/ Departments have been asked to send their revised budget estimates in the prescribed form to the Budget Division of the Finance Department of the Ministry of Finance by December 7.
Yesterday Monday (November 27) these instructions have been given in the circular on the preparation of revised budget estimate (operation and development) for the financial year 2023-24 from the finance department.
According to the circular, to ensure the best use of limited resources by allocating necessary funds to the priority sectors of the government, it is necessary to formulate a revised budget with the aim of ensuring the smooth and timely implementation of the current fiscal year budget of all ministries, departments
and other institutions under the medium-term budget framework system.
It said that 75 percent of the money allocated to the power sector in the operation and development budget and 80 percent of the money allocated to the petrol, oil, lubricant, gas and energy sector can be spent. Besides, the money allocated for the purchase of all types of vehicles (motor vehicles, watercraft, aircraft) under the development budget and the money allocated in the management budget for the land acquisition sector should be stopped and the participation in all types of foreign trips/workshops/seminars under the management and development budget should be stopped.
According to the circular, the size of the revised budget for the current financial year 2023-2024 must be limited to the total expenditure limit (operations and development) mentioned in the original budget and no additional allocation can be claimed in any way. At the same time, if any money is supposed to remain unspent in the development expenditure, then the unspent money cannot be transferred to the operating budget in any way.
The revised budget circular states that for the calculation of the revised revenue and capital receipt estimates, in this case, the revenue collections of the first six months of the last two fiscal years (2021-2022 and 2022-2023) and the first four/five months of the current fiscal year should be taken into consideration.
The circular provides 14-point instructions for formulation of revised Annual Development Program (ADP). These include-restricted number of projects in the revised ADP and no project unallocated in the original revised ADP. Other less important projects should be prioritized in the light of the government’s strategic goals and objectives. No unallocated project shall be placed in the core of the revised ADP.
Necessary funds should be kept against all the projects that will be completed in the current financial year. Allocations should be reduced from slow projects and allocations should be made as needed to important projects with fast implementation speed. Priority should be given to projects related to agriculture, agro-based industries, power generation, cyclone and post-flood rehabilitation. In case of local currency allocation for essential new projects, the allocation of local currency should be ensured for the timely implementation of the ongoing development projects.
Projects under implementation with foreign loans/grants and contracts executed, all such projects will be prioritized in the revised ADP. In case of foreign aided projects, the PL/G portion can be spent in full and in that case, necessary resources should be kept in the government expenditure portion. On the other hand, the projects which have already been approved outside the ADP of the current financial year and the projects in favor of which the allocation has been given, those projects should be included in the revised ADP along with the allocation. Funds cannot be proposed for any unauthorized scheme.
Six-point instructions have been given in the budget circular for the preparation of revised operational expenditure of the ministries and departments. These include-Operational Expenditure Estimates shall take into account expenditure trends for the first six months of the previous two financial years (2021-2022 and 2022-2023) and the first four/five months of the current financial year. However, only the actual expenditure of the first three months of the current financial year should be taken into account in the calculation of expenditure in the salary and allowances sector. Also, funds cannot be allocated in the revised budget for procurement of any assets that were not in the original budget. The circular said that if any money has been allocated from the Unexpected Expenditure Management Department of the Finance Department in the current financial year, it must be mentioned in the revised budget.