The Indian Finance Ministry has directed central ministries not to hold any conferences in luxury five-star hotels and cut non-plan expenditure by up to 10 percent, the NDTV reported Friday.
Under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's suggestion to curtail wasteful expenditure, the ministry would tighten its belt to control the expenditure as the gap between projected revenues and expenditures for 2008-09 is likely to widen beyond the estimates made in its budget after the extra liabilities, due to acceptance of the sixth pay commission, waiver of farm loan, increased subsidies on fertilizers.
"Practice of holding meetings and conferences at five-star hotels is to be discontinued," Expenditure Secretary of the Finance Ministry Sushama Nath said.
Other measures, including cutting down on overtime allowance, domestic and foreign travel expense, publications, professional services, advertising and office expenses, will help the government save an estimated 6 billion rupees (some 110 million U.S. dollars) in the current fiscal year.
Nath said the government will stick to fiscal deficit target in2008-09, despite increased burden due to oil subsidies.
She said that measures are intended at promoting fiscal discipline without restricting the operational efficiency of the government.
The ministries have been asked not to announce any new schemes in the current fiscal, apart from those cleared in the Budget for 2008-2009.
Source:Xinhua
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