Himachal: Warning to the Himachal government, seven percent fine will be imposed if the money for central schemes is not spent on time

The central government has warned the Sukhu government of the state not to spend the money on the central schemes. This warning has been given in the case of funding centrally funded schemes. Prateek Kumar Singh, Director, Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, has written a letter to Chief Secretary Prabodh Saxena and the Secretary of Finance.

In this, it has been warned that the budget coming from the center for the central schemes and its state's share should be deposited in the account of the Single Nodal Agency (SNA) within 30 days at the stipulated time, so that it can be spent in the concerned scheme on time.

If this is not done then penalty interest at the rate of seven percent per annum will have to be paid. This new arrangement will be applicable from April 1, 2023, in the coming year. Earlier, the period for depositing money from the Center in the account of the single nodal agency was 21 days, while the period for the state budget was 40 days.

Now the period of submission of the budget received from the Central Government has been reduced to 30 days, but it has also been warned that after this deadline, the state government departments will keep the money with them, for the same amount of time seven Penal interest will have to be paid at the rate of percent per annum. In this, it has also been mentioned to modify the old system of transfer in 21 days of March 23, 2021.

This will make it easier to implement central schemes on the ground. It is noteworthy that it has been reported in many states including Himachal Pradesh that the budget is not being spent in time for centrally funded schemes. In such a situation, the Chief Secretaries of the states have been warned about this new system. If the budget is not deposited in the account of the single nodal agency on time, it will have to be deposited in the Consolidated Fund of the Government of India.

The government did not release Rs 49 crore for Shimla Smart City

The central government had released an installment of Rs 49 crore for the Shimla Smart City Project, which has not been released yet. This installment has already been released at the end of December last year. Due to the non-receipt of funds for smart city management from the government, many works have also started stalling. Several departments, including the Central Public Works Department, have also demanded the early release of funds to take forward the work of the smart city.

Also Read: Sarfaraz Memon was planning a big attack in India, and went to China and Hong Kong 15 times: Indore police detained