The finance ministry has decided to present a three-year rolling Budget from the next fiscal. It has, however, ruled out carrying over expenditure from one year to the next.
Finance ministry officials told Business Standard the ministry would retain the option of curtailing the expenditure of various ministries if they did not spread out their spending over the year.
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"The cash management system introduced in six big-spending ministries allows us to prevent bunching of expenditure in the last quarter. If not this year, we will wield the stick in the next fiscal," said an official.
The six ministries -- agriculture, rural development, health, coal and mines, human resource development and food processing -- together account for close to 10 per cent of the total government expenditure.
According to officials, the ministries will be allowed to roll over their expenditure in any year from the first quarter to the second and then again to the third.
"But by the end of the third quarter, if they have not spent 50 per cent of the allotted funds, then clearly spending in the last three months will be inefficient and unproductive," the official said.
As far as the rolling three-year budget is concerned, the officials said the ministry would project the government's expenditure and receipts for three consecutive years instead of the current practice of providing Budget estimates for just the next fiscal.
"While we intend to give ministry and department-wise expenditure, the details of the various schemes might not be provided," the official said.
But one year's expenditure will not be allowed to spill over to the next. "This will ensure that schemes announced by various departments and ministries are implemented during the course of the year," an official said.
The three-year rolling budget is part of the revised Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Bill that was passed by the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
The officials said the finance ministry would institutionalise it during over the next few years.
A three-year plan also forces ministries and departments to think over a longer time-frame and provides them a better perspective of their spending patterns.
They would thus be more realistic in making allocation demands, the officials pointed out.
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