Manipur government has announced to cut down on non-essential expenditure in order to ensure that scarce resources are made available for meeting unavoidable and committed expenditures of the state, according to official sources.
The move came after the state put on hold the recruitment processes because of the adverse impact of COVID-19.
With immediate effect, the government has decided to cut down on as many as 14 categories of non-essential expenditure including excess authorisation over budget provision, commitments on expenditure, ban on recruitment, ban on creation of new entities, ban on printing of diaries, coffee table book, purchase of office furniture, equipment and luxury items among others.
The state finance department has even issued an Office Memorandum in this regard on Thursday, stating that economic dislocation inflicted by the COVOD-19 pandemic has seriously impacted the resource availability of the state government.
On the other hand, the amount to be incurred on meeting recurring expenditure is likely to see an increase during the current fiscal due to certain commitments made by the government, including unavoidable expenditures on COVID-19 related activities, the memorandum said.
Directing that no financial commitments shall be made by any department on items for which expenditure sanction has not been obtained, the memorandum asked all major tax and non-tax revenue collecting departments to take urgent necessary measures to meet their targets for the current fiscal year, 2020-21.
Reiterating that all on-going recruitment processes should be put on hold except those already started with the approval of the cabinet, it has also put a ban on creation of new entities directing that no new entities either functional or territorial involving expenditure out of the consolidated fund of the state will be created.
It said that the Utmost economy shall be observed in organising conferences, seminars, workshops, exhibitions, fairs among others and only such events, which are absolutely essential, should be held.
Holding of or participating in exhibitions, seminars, workshops abroad at the cost of the state government is prohibited.
Proposals for participation in study tours, workshops, conference, seminars, presentation of papers at the cost of the state government cost will be entertained except those fully funded by sponsoring agencies, it added.
There will be a ban on holding meetings and conferences at hotels except for those which are of vital importance to the state.