Abnormal lag in revenue expenditure irks Defence Ministry

NEW DELHI: The Defence Ministry has cracked down on an abnormal lag in revenue expenditure by the three services, sending out a terse note to all departments that last minute expenses in the month of March will be subject to a special audit by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar.

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As pointed out in several articles by ET, the defence ministry has over the past two years lagged significantly in spending money allocated to it, especially under the modernisation fund, `11,595 crore which has been returned this year.

Taking note of this inability to spend, the ministry has sent a notice that ‘expenditure has lagged’ with a significant 30% of the non-salary revenue budget (out of a total of `48,000 crore) remaining unspent till the beginning of February, according to a note accessed by ET.

The ministry has now cracked down on this seeming inability to exhaust committed funds, with the note sent by Joint Secretary AN Das saying that better planning is required and a ‘rush of expenditure on procurement should be avoided during the last quarter of the fiscal year and in particular the last month of the year’. All departments have been asked to submit a compliance report on expenditure throughout the year that would be submitted to Parrikar as well as the Finance Ministry for analyses.