CONTENTS - Central Public Works Department

SECTION 51
SECTION 51
REGULARISATION OF EXCESS
51.1 Avoiding excesses
(1) Excesses over voted grants and appropriations and surrenders reflect on the effectiveness of
control over expenditure.
(2) In cases where the schemes are not fully worked out at the budget stage, and a realistic estimate
of the likely expenditure during the year is not found possible, provision for preliminary expenses
and immediate requirements need only be included in the budget as far as possible, subject to
review later on during the financial year on the basis of progress made in the planning of and
sanction of the schemes.
(3) Apart from the realistic estimation of the budget, adequate steps should be taken for effective
control over the progress of expenditure against the sanctioned grants, including expenditure on
account of book adjustments and payments for procurement of stores, supplies and services.
51.2 Sanctions to regularise excesses
(1) A statement in Form no.8 should be prepared annually for submission to the Ministry by the end of
December every year to show the causes of excesses and savings under different sub-heads,
along with reasons why steps were not taken in time to surrender the savings, or to obtain necessary
funds to cover the excesses before the end of the financial year. Separate statements should be
prepared for each grant.
(2) If the grant has been exceeded, sanction should be obtained to the excess from the Ministry of
Finance in case of non-voted expenditure, or from the Parliament in the case of voted expenditure.
(3) As voted and charged portions, as also the revenue and capital sections of a grant/appropriation
are distinct, and re-appropriation inter-se is not permissible, an excess in any one portion or section
is treated as an excess in the grant/appropriation.
(4) Excess in the demands as a whole requires regularization by the Public Accounts Committee,
which generally takes a serious view of such excess, and insists upon satisfactory explanations
from the Departments concerned.
(5) Similarly, savings and surrenders should also be avoided. The Public Accounts Committee takes
serious view of the same as in the case of excess. Large savings are indicative of loose budgeting
in the sense that these prove the inability of the Department to spend usefully the funds to the
extent anticipated.
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