A meeting on integrating views and suggestions of Hill Council Leh while formulating the revised estimate 2020-21 and Budget estimate 2021-22 was held on September 11 at Council Secretariat.

Finance related key issues including delegation of financial power to Hill Council Leh and Executive Engineers of PWD, Leh,  clarification regarding non-lapsable of funds,  provision for advance tendering, exemption of e-tendering in rural areas of Leh, consideration of feedbacks from grassroots level while formulating state and SDP budgets, etc. were discussed.

Other issues like a cap on the allotment of works for contractors to ensure timely completion of allotted works, way out for non-response of tenders and speeding up of road blacktopping works in the current month, etc were also discussed at length.  

Commissioner Secretary Finance UT  Ladakh, Rigzin Samphel apprised the meeting that issues like delegation of financial power to Hill Council Leh and Executive Engineers of PWD, Leh,  provision for advance tendering, an exemption in e-tendering for rural areas of Leh was already taken up with GoI. He urged Hill Council Leh to abide by the schedule and financial principles for time-bound preparation of the revised estimate 2020-21 and budget estimate 2021-22 issued by the finance department UT- Ladakh. 

As per the financial principles of Revised Estimated (RE) 2020-21 and Budget Estimated (BE) 2021- 2022, all the proposed projects/schemes shall be completed within three years. No fresh proposal shall be accepted without the completion of ongoing schemes. Only a 5% hike should be proposed in the BE of 2021-2022. All the departments should prioritize schemes/projects. Projects/schemes which are expected to be funded by the Central Ministries should not be included in the SE 2021-2022. 

The Budget proposal should not be in a routine and casual manner and should be realistic based and for sustainable development. The salary budget should be based on the Sanctioned establishment of the department. The department shall be responsible for saving under salaries. The projections for additional funds in the revised Estimates should not be taken for granted. All the expenditures should be within the Sanctioned budget grant.  The budget estimates should be prepared in thousands of Rupees.  Classification of the budget may be shown as per the list of Major and Minor Works.  Inclusion of Lump Sum Provision should be avoided.  Budget Estimates should be prepared within detailed justification in Performa's and Statements. 

Saving due to the following reasons are not acceptable: 1. Non-approval of schemes/proposal 2. Non-availability of land, machinery, equipment construction material etc. 3 Delay in a tendering process over non-finalization of tenders. 4 Non- completion of stage works. 5. Any other reasons which could be foreseen. 

Gyal P Wangyal, CEC; Deputy Chairman, Tsering Sandup; Director Finance Accounts & Treasury Ladakh Tahir Hussain; Deputy Commissioner/Chief Executive Officer Leh, Sachin Kumar; Deputy Director Planning Finance Department UT Ladakh, Konchok Gyaltson; CCF LAHDC, Leh, Jigmet Namgyal, and concerned officers also attended the meeting.