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PROCESSING OF CHARGED EXPENDITURE CASES.
PAYMENT OF CHARGED EXPENDITURE
1. CHARGED EXPENDITURE
1.1 In terms of Article 112 (1) of the Constitution of India, a statement of estimated receipts and expenditure of the Government of India is presented to the Parliament every year. Article 112(2) provides that the estimate of expenditure embodied in this annual financial Budget, shall show separately.
(a) The sums required to meet the expenditure described by the Constitution as expenditure charged upon the Consolidated fund of India: and
(b) The sums required to meet other expenditure proposed to be made from the Consolidated Fund of India.
1.2 The types of expenditure that are charged on the Consolidated Fund of India, as enumerated in Article 112(3) of the Constitution of India, are as follows:
a) The emoluments and allowances of the President and the expenditure relating to his office.
b) The salaries and allowances of the Chairman and the Deputy
Chairman of the Council of States and the Speaker and the
Deputy Speaker of the House of People.
c) Debt Charges for which the Government of India is liable including interest, sinking fund charges and redemption charges and other expenditure relating to loans and the service and redemption of debt.
d) (i) The salaries and allowances and pension payable to or in respect of judges of the Supreme Court.
(ii) the pension payable to or in respect of Judges of the Federal Court;
(iii) The pension payable to or in respect of Judges of any High Court which exercises jurisdiction in relation to any area included in the territory of India or which at any time before the commencement of the Constitution exercised jurisdiction in relation to any are included in a Governor’s Province of the Dominion of India.
(e) The salary, allowances and pension payable to or in respect of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India
(f) Any sums required to satisfy and judgment, decree or award of any court or arbitral tribunal;
(g) Any other expenditure declared by the Constitution or by Parliament to be so charged.
Classification of Expenditure as “Charged” or as “Voted”
1.3 Expenditure which under the provision of the Constitution is subject to the Vote of the Legislature shall be shown in the annual accounts separately from expenditure which is “Charged” on the Consolidated Fund of India. The expression “Charged” or “Voted” shall be appended to the heads concerned in the annual accounts to distinguish the two categories of expenditure.
2. PROVISION OF FUNDS
G.S.Works
2.1 Anticipatory provision is made for making payment of “Charged Expenditure” under Major Heads 3601 and 5054, which relate to G.S works, in the budget of the Border Roads Organization every year. The funds so provided are, however, controlled centrally by the DGBR. BRDB O.M No.F.208 (8)/BRDB/BWA/Ch/Expdr dated 30.12.1992(copy at Appendix B) specifically provisions that these funds will not be sub-allotted by DGBR to any subordinate formation to cover any past or future sanctions and that each sanction accorded by the competent Authority shall invariably indicate the classification as “Charged” to avoid any ambiguity in compilation of the expenditure.
2.2 The corresponding code heads to which the charged expenditure is to be booked are as follows:
Major Head 3601 : Code Head 99/067/01
Major Head 5054 : Code Head 99/069/01
Charged expenditure is to be identified by category prefix 99 to the relevant code head.
Agency and Deposit Works
2.3 No funds are made available to the BRO by the Agencies concerned in respect of such works for making payment of charged expenditure. Therefore, only provisional payment can be made in such cases. However, for making any such provisional payment also, sanction has to be obtained by the CE(P)/Cdr TF concerned from DGBR, who would issue sanction in individual cases, as in the case of G.S. works, in consultation with CDA(BR).
3. PROCEDURE FOR PAYMENT
As and when any payment, classifiable as deposit in courts or charged expenditure, is to be made, the formation concerned will have to refer the case to HQ DGBR. The case, in turn, will have to be referred by HQ DGBR to CDA (BR) for noting the expenditure. Therefore, sanction will be issued by HQ DGBR for the requisite amount, indicating in the sanction that the amount has been noted by CDA (BR). A separate sanction is required to be issued in each case. This is mandated by the BRDB O.M dated 30.12.1992 ibid. This essentially implies that the Officer in-charge of the Accounts Offices will have to ensure that:
(i) Payment of deposit in court or charged expenditure is made, irrespective of whether it pertains to G.S. Works or Agency/Deposit works only after sanction has been obtained by the CE (P)/ Cdr TF for HQ DGBR.
(ii) The sanction clearly indicates allotment of the amount to be released and
(iii) the sanction also indicates that the said amount has been noted by CDA(BR)
4. ROLE OF CDA(BR) AND THE SUB-OFFICES
4.1 Te role of the CDA(BR), as laid down in BRDB O.M dated 30.12.1992.
(a) To note the actual allocation of such charged expenditure fund from each budgetary head to cover each individual sanction for charged expenditure
(b) To monitor the progress of actual charged expenditure against budgetary allocations.
(c) To give timely signal to DGBR HQrs/BRDB Sectt for arranging replenishment/revision of charged expenditure provisions under each head either through borrowing from Contingency Fund of India in emergency or through supplementary Demand and
(d) To help DGBR HQrs to make a realistic estimate of fund requirements for charged expenditure under each budgetary head at PE/RE/BE stages.
4.2 With a view to enabling CDA(BR) to discharge this function, HQrs DGBR sends copies of all sanctions issued from time to time to the Budget Cell in the Main Office, where records are to be maintained in a register in the following format:
Srl.No. / Reference No./Date of DGBR`s sanction / Unit/Fmn / Major Head/Code
Head
/ Amount sanction-ed / Amount released / Difference / Reference No./date of report received from the Accounts office concerned / RemarksIf any
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 94.3 Simultaneously, all sub-offices of CDA(BR) are required to submit a report, as soon as the payment is made, in the following format:
S.NO / Reference No./Date of DGBR`s sanction / Major Head/Code Head / Amount sanctioned / Amount released / Difference / Reasons for the difference if any / Remarks if any1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8
Apart from sending these report by post addressed to the Budget cell, the information should, as far as possible, be sent by Fax/Signal also. A copy of the report should also be endorsed to E5B Section of DGBR, as HQ DGBR is also required to monitor outgo of funds allotted for meeting the charged expenditure.
4.4 In the Main Office, all sanctions received from the HQ DGBR are required to be kept in a separate folder and serially numbered-the serial number corresponding with the serial number of the entry in the register. Similarly, all reports received from the sub-offices should also be kept in a separate folder and serially numbered, with the serial number of the report being indicated in column 8 of the Register. The remarks column is basically meant for making note of such payments in respect of Agency/Deposit works as might have been made provisionally. It is for the HQ DGBR to obtain funds to cover such provisional payments and advise CDA(BR). On receipt of funds in such cases, necessary particulars should be noted in the remarks column in the register maintained in the Main Office.
4.5 It has to be kept in view by the Budget Cell in the Main Office that as per BRDB O.M dated 30.12.1992 ibid, irrespective of the recommendations made by the Ministry of Defence (Fin/BR) and accepted by the Ministry of Finance at Revised Estimates or the Budget Estimates stage, no new or revised provision for charged expenditure under respective Major Heads should be taken as finally approved unless a written confirmation is received from the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways(Finance) or the Budget Division of the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance.
5. CONCLUSIONS
As a general rule, any payment required to be made in satisfaction of any judgment, decree or award of any court or arbitral tribunal is to be treated as `Charged Expenditure`. Any such payment can be made by the sub-offices of the CDA(BR) only on receipt of specific sanction in individual cases from DGBR, which should indicate that the sanction is being issued in consultation with CDA(BR), and/or the requirement of funds has been noted by CDA(BR).Sub-offices do not have the authority to make any provisional payment. If any such payment is required to be made, the CE(P)/Cdr TF should take up the matter with the HQ DGBR for issuing a specific sanction. To enable CDA(BR) to monitor the expenditure, sub-offices need to send to report to CDA(BR) and also to E5B HQ DGBR.
Similar procedure shall also be followed in the cases of “Deposit in Court”.
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PROVISION OF FUNDS
256. Anticipatory provision in the Defence Service Estimates for meeting payment of “Charged” expenditure would be made every year by the Ministry of Defence in consultation with the Ministry of Defence (Finance). The provision thus made will be controlled centrally by the Ministry of Defence who will make specific allotment of funds as and when a payment is to be made. In cases where anticipation provision has either not been made or proves inadequate and payments cannot wait till the necessary supplementary appropriation is obtained from the aliment, advances from the contingency Fund of India will be obtained, as laid down in Para 247 and 248.
Payment in respective “Charged” expenditure will not be made without the specific allotment of Funds. In the absence of specific allotment of funds. Controllers, will not entertain any requests for provisional payments except when advice for such Provisional Payments emanates from the C.G.D.A. or Ministry of Defence (Finance). However in case where an allotment letter issued for a particular year lapses due to non payment during that year, a fresh allotment letter has to be issued for the year in which payment is actually made. In urgent cases, the payment should, nevertheless, be made and adjusted as “Charged” expenditure provisionally and Administrative Authorities advised simultaneously by the CDA concerned for issue of a fresh allotment letter. A copy of such advice should be endorsed to Ministry of Defence, the concerned DFA., the Min of Def(Fin/Budget) and the office of the CGDA.
In the case of BRO the powers of controlling the expenditure rest with the MORTH.
If an expenditure is correctly to be treated as Charged on the basis of subsidiary details/information available with CsDA, it has to be booked in the accounts as “Charged” even if, for some reason or the other it is not covered by formal allotment. The Administrative Authorities in such cases should be advised by the CDA concerned for issuing allotment letter. A note to that effect should be similarly made in the remarks column of the Proforma of monthly “Charged expenditure report with brief details of the information etc based on which the expenditure is classified as “Charged”.
Note: In certain cases stamp paper is purchased by the Arbitrator (instead of being supplied by Government) who claims payment at a later date. In such cases, if the award contains a direction that the value of stamp paper will be borne by Government re-imbursement of such value to the Arbitrator will constitute “Charged” expenditure provided it is made in accordance with the term of and subsequent to the award.
SATISFACTION OF DECREES/ARBITRAL AWARDS IN RESPECT OF COMPENSATION FOR REQUISITION OR ACQUISITION OF PROPERTIES FOR DEFENCE
255. (a) Where the decree/award is not directly against the Union of India but is against the State Government, that same will be initially satisfied by the State Government, who will raise debits for the amount paid through the A.G concerned in the normal manner. No allotment of funds in such cases is necessary from the Central Government budget under “Charged” expenditure.
(b) Where the decree/award is directly against the Union of India, the payment to be made in satisfaction thereof is treated as “Charged” on the Consolidated fund of India, Prior allotment of funds will, therefore, be obtained before payments in satisfaction of such decreed/awards are made.
© The payment made in satisfaction of the award of Central Administrative Tribunals (constituted under the Administrative Tribunal Act 198) should be treated as expenditure “Charged” on te Consolidated Fund of India within the purview of article 112(3)9f) of the Constitution. Where, however, te CAT grants a Government servant some relief such arrears paid to satisfy the judgment will constitute expenditure “Charged” on the Consolidated Fund of India. The subsequent salary will be deemed to be governed by the normal rules of Government relating to pay scales, increment etc. of Government employees and hence will not constitute “Charged” expenditure but will be treated as “Voted” expenditure as usual.
(d) Where the court decrees payment of rent, at a higher rent to satisfy te decree will be treated as “Charged Expenditure”. Where the agreements are modified or revised after the court decree by mutual consent of te parties concerned, the subsequent recurring payments will be treated as “Voted” Expenditure in general, when made in pursuance of fresh agreement.