Maintain budgetary discipline: Parliamentary Panel to finance, defence ministry

NEW DELHI: A parliamentary panel has pulled up the ministries of defence and finance for exceeding expenditure limits and asked them to set up a high level committee to suggest steps for maintaining budgetary discipline.

Observing that in most cases supplementary grants are obtained at the fag end of the financial year, the Public Accounts Committee in its report said "this is a clear indication of bad budgeting as well as deeply pervading malice in the extant budgeting mechanism."

The committee, headed by Lok Sabha member K V Thomas, suggested that the ministries and departments should find effective ways for obtaining supplementary grants in a more realistic manner.

With particular reference of the Defence Ministry for incurring excess expenditure, the report said had it exercised "greater budgetary discipline and kept a closer watch over expenditure under the grants operated by them...the excess expenditure could have been avoided to a large extent".

"The committee wonders as to why the crucial ministry like the Ministry of Defence responsible for the defence of the country would remain so insensitive for a such a long period and would continuously be wanting in their budgetary exercise," it added.

The report also pointed out that the Defence Ministry incurred excess expenditure of Rs 7,575.76 crore in five grants in 2010-11, Rs 4,137.01 crore in two grants in 2011-12, Rs 4,063.24 crore in four grants in 2012-13 and Rs 770.36 crore in five grants in 2013-14 and Rs 9,447.14 crore in 2014-15.

It suggested that "a high-level committee be constituted consisting the budget controlling authorities of the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Finance (Department of Expenditure) to identify loopholes in the budgeting procedures of the Ministry of Defence and to obviate the same in order to avoid the recurring phenomenon of excess expenditure under the grants operated by them".