Bihar govt issues guidelines to check parking of funds in PD/PL accounts

The Bihar finance department has directed all treasuries that any amount over ₹1 crore to be transferred to personal ledger/deposit accounts of departments should be done by prior approval from the finance department.

PATNA: In a bid to check financial impropriety and parking of funds ahead of the closure of financial accounts on March 31, the state finance department has directed all treasuries that any amount over ₹1 crore to be transferred to personal ledger/deposit accounts of departments should be done by prior approval from the finance department.

The Bihar finance department has urged RBI to ensure that all bank branches remain open on March 31 till night so that tax payers depositing their taxes for fiscal year 2021-22 on the last date gets it credited on the same day. (Representational Image)

The move comes after Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in its state finance audit report in 2020 red flagged the finance department over big amount lying in PD accounts and recommended that all amounts lying in PD accounts should be remitted to consolidated fund of India.

The central auditor had highlighted that there were 158 PD accounts having a closing balance of ₹3,312 crore till March 2020 and recommended that usage of PD accounts should be curtailed for maintaining sanctity of budgetary process.

“The treasuries have been told that no unnecessary transfer of funds should be made in PD accounts and approvals have to be taken if the amount is over ₹1 crore,” said a finance officer, wishing not to be quoted. A circular in this regard was issued by the finance department recently.

PD accounts are opened in treasuries for meeting fast expenditure in public interest not possible through the normal treasury procedure and other reasons. Personal ledger accounts are opened for various boards, authority, agency and society as well as special purpose vehicles.

CAG had cautioned in its report that non-reconciliation of balances of PL accounts periodically and non –transfer of unspent amounts to consolidated fund of India before end of financial year entails risk of misuse of public funds, fraud and misappropriation.

Finance officials said the implementation of CFMS ( omprehensive financial management system), a new system where all treasuries are connected online and all expenditure and withdrawals are updated on daily basis, had already brought down the PD accounts after migration to the new system. “There is more transparency in the new system and PD/ PL accounts are being monitored closely,” said another officer.

More importantly, there are chances the deadline of last date of submission of bills for withdrawals by departments and other government agencies could be extended till March 25. In a recent circular, the finance department had asked the departments and DDOs (drawing and disbursing officers) to send all bills related to withdrawals against expenditure under schemes and other heads to treasuries by March 20 for processing.

“A decision would be taken and circular in this regard is likely to be issued soon,” said an officer. He said the deadline extension was being contemplated as several government departments had not been able to present bills for withdrawals due to work getting slowed last week owing to Holi holidays.

According to the last circular, only bills for withdrawals against expenditure of high court, state legislature and other government bodies have been exempted from the deadline. It has also been mentioned that withdrawals for expenditure should be made within the budgetary estimates and allocations made to departments under the first and second supplementary budget, according to a circular issued recently.

Meanwhile, the additional chief secretary, finance department S Siddarth has requested the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to ensure that all branches of banks in the state remain open on March 31 till night so that tax payers depositing their taxes for fiscal year 2021-22 on the last date of fiscal year gets it credited on the same day before closure of this fiscal year.

In his letter, Siddharth has also urged the general manager, RBI, regional office, Patna Brij Raj to give necessary directions to banks for opening adequate counters for receiving taxes from tax payers and to make bank reconciliation statement available every two hours in case of e payments of taxes.

Finance officials said this year’s collection of revenue from internal resources is expected to be around ₹41,000 crore while total expenditure of the state government will hover around ₹1.85 lakh crore to ₹1.9 lakh crore as against the budget outlay of ₹2.18 lakh crore, which will be 84% to 87% of the total budget outlay.