Mumbai: Maharashtra finance ministry has asked all the state departments to ensure "no rush of expenditure" in the last month of the current financial year and to spend 60 per cent of their allotted budget by December 2025.
There will be a reduction in the provisions if departments' expenditure is less than 50 per cent by December, a government notification issued on Monday night said.
The notification said 60 per cent of the funds will be disbursed in the first nine months of the financial year by December 2025.
"The budgeted expenditure of the administrative departments for the year 2025-26 should be allocated appropriately. This should be reviewed every month at the level of heads of the administrative departments and care should be taken to ensure there is no rush of expenditure in the last month of the year and such information should be given to the monitoring authorities," the order said.
If there is any financial irregularity in this regard, the administrative department will be responsible for it, it said, adding that all departments should plan their expenditure.
"Also, the provisions of the departments whose expenditure is less than 50 per cent at the end of December 2025 will be reduced in a proportionate manner while preparing the estimates and the entire responsibility will remain with the administrative departments concerned," the notification said.
It also said proposals for the approval of prizes, publications, foreign travel, advertising and publicity, motor vehicles, other administrative expenses should be sent to the finance department with proper justification.
The proposals should be routed through the planning, social justice, special assistance, tribal development departments and the departmental budget cells.
Notably, Maharashtra Chief Secretary Sujata Saunik last month issued a directive to all departments mandating that any new proposals presented to the state cabinet must clearly outline the potential increase in expenditure beyond their allocated budget.
The directive, issued amid signs of the state's financial constraints, called for transparency in identifying the potential increases in expenditure for any new proposal, thus holding departments accountable for their financial commitments.
In the more than Rs 7,00,020 crore state budget for the fiscal 2025-26 presented by state Finance Minister Ajit Pawar last month, the government projected a revenue deficit of Rs 45,891 crore and a fiscal deficit of more than Rs 1,36,000 crore.
The revenue receipts are expected to be more than Rs 5,60,000 crore.
Deputy Chief Minister Pawar had said the government has been successful in keeping the fiscal deficit below 3 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GDSP), and the state's revenue deficit has been consistently less than 1 per cent of the gross state income.
(Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
