New Delhi: Centre curbs five-star meets, jaunts

DHNS

New Delhi, 13 July 2011: In the face of spiralling inflation, the Centre has resorted to the familiar ’’tightening of the belt’’ as it announced a slew of au­s­terity measures that would cut down wasteful ex­­p­endi­tures by its departments.

 

A finance ministry circular has instructed all departments not to hold meetings in five-star hotels, limit foreign trips, fre­e­ze hiring and stop purchase of new vehicles except for security purposes. Besides inflation, the government is also cognizant of public discontent over corruption and rise in fuel and LPG prices that had a direct impact on the budgets of several households.

 

Defending the government’s austerity drive, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday said restrictions on foreign visits and other expenses are aimed at curbing wasteful expenditure and containing fiscal deficit. “I sent a note (on austerity in government departments) and the prime minister has approved in certain areas where I considered that wasteful expenditure should be avoided and that money should be depl­oyed for developmental work,” he told reporters.

 

Annual inflation spiralled to a higher-than-expected 9.06 per cent in May from 8.66 per cent the previous month. The government proposes to keep the fiscal deficit at 4.6 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2011-12, down from 4.7 per cent in the previous fiscal.

 

In a subtle rebuke to ministers who took their extended families on foreign tours at the tax payers’ expense, the circular asked to keep jaunts to the most necessary and unavoidable official engagements and to keep the size of the delegation to absolute minimum.

 

The ministry has also called for a ban on creation of Plan and non-Plan posts except for new organisations. Consultants should be engaged only for “high quality services for which the ministry/ department concerned does not have requisite expertise.”

 

“The state governments are required to furnish monthly returns of Plan expenditure—Central, Centrally-sponsored or state plan—to respective ministries/ departments along with a report of amounts outstanding in their public account of central and centrally sponsored schemes,” it said.