PANAJI: Finance Secretary Daulat Hawaldar on Thursday said that the circular issued by the finance department to all the government departments as regards the austerity measures to be taken by them, is just a routine exercise taken up by the finance department, during the last quarter of the financial year.
Speaking to ‘The Navhind Times,’ the finance secretary said that such a decision is taken annually, before the end of the fiscal year, as the government restricts its revenue expenditure during the last quarter of the financial year, and stresses on capital expenditure on activities like development and so on. “This is being done to prevent the unnecessary spending on the part of some government departments, which tend to use the money in their possession on needless things before March 31,” he said, pointing out that such mindset, in fact, is the legacy of the days dating back to Union Territory when the government departments would spend all the sanctioned money before the end of the fiscal year, so that it did not go back to the Centre.