At a time when the State sees shortfall in resource realisation due to the impact of Covid-19, a massive overdrive has been set to bring back huge unutilised funds parked in the bank accounts.
According to an estimate, about Rs 7,000 crore released by the State Government under the programme expenditure head have been parked in bank accounts.
However, no official confirmation is available in this regard as officials are tightlipped over the matter.Sources said the Finance Department has approached various departments to get it details about the parked funds so that the funds would be brought back to State treasury for utilisation in Covid-19 pandemic.
Till date, the State Government has mopped up more than Rs 2,300 crore out of the parked money. Funds are now required to meet the growing expenditure in social and other sectors.
As the State Government mopped up over Rs 2,300 Crore of money parked in Bank Accounts, resource position in September looks bright and if more funds will be retrieved from Bank Accounts, several departments, which are requiring more funds in Covid-19 Pandemic in coming months, will be able to meet their expenditure needs, officials feel.
Finance Department has issued guidelines prohibiting parking of Government money outside Public Accounts and these instructions are needed to be strictly followed by the Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDO)s, pointed out an official.
While serious move is on to mop up funds parked in bank accounts, another additional resource mobilisation effort has been initiated for realisation of huge arrears. All the revenue earning departments are having huge arrears pending for realisation. The Government has advised these departments to formulate one time settlement (OTS) scheme for release of such funds.
Through OTS, the Government had realised huge arrears pending with the Nalco, HAL and other public sector udertaking.
Such measures will aid in creating fiscal space to meet the Covid-19- related expenditure on public health, livelihood generation, social security net and internal security, said officials.