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Land acquisition and car buy are embargoed by the government under a fresh austerity recipe for the new fiscal year by citing the lingering global financial crunch.
An official circular issued Sunday carries government orders limiting or suspending some operating and development expenditures in the belt-tightening apparently as the exchequer feels financial pinch.
The squeeze applies to all government ministries, departments, semi-government, autonomous bodies and corporations for the fiscal year (FY) 2023-24.
As per the austerity measures, all the relevant government agencies will be entitled to spend maximum 75 per cent of their allocated operating and development funds for power sector for FY'24.
The government has also put the highest spending ceiling at 80 per cent of the allocated operating and development funds for petrol, oil and lubricant, gas and energy sector for the current fiscal year, says the circular issued by the Ministry of Finance.
Operating expenditures of allocated funds for water vessels, aircraft sectors will remain suspended while expenditures can be made for replacement of vehicles aged over 10 years on prior approval from the Finance Division, it said.
"Besides, the spending under allocated operating funds will also be suspended for land-acquisition purpose for FY'24," the government notification reads.
However, allocated funds can be spent for the land acquisition under development budget for FY'24 in compliance with all necessary formalities along with prior approval of the Finance Division under the Ministry of Finance, it adds.
On the other hand, all types of foreign tours and participation in workshops, seminars are suspended for the employees of government, semi-government, autonomous bodies and corporations under the operating and development budgets for the FY'24.
However, foreign travels can be allowed on a limited scale, especially for Masters and PhD under foreign-funded scholarship and fellowship programmers, it mentions.
The restrictions on foreign tours, in particular, evidently comes in the wake depleting foreign-currency reserves of the country that hover around $30 billion by official count.
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