Shillong, Jan 11: The state government has decided to enhance the financial deficit of Meghalaya by 3.5 per cent of the annual budget as per provisions of the Central government.
“We have approved the amendment to Meghalaya Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, 2006 to allow our fiscal deficit to go up to 3.5 per cent for this year,” chief minister Conrad K Sangma told reporters after a Cabinet meeting held at Sohra on Friday.
He said this is being done annually as per government of India’s provisions and permissions to have the fiscal deficit raised by 3 per cent to 3.5 per cent.
Meanwhile, the government has decided to empower the executive engineers of Fisheries department with delegation of financial powers.
“This was not there before which means executive engineers could not carry out works and had to go for approvals all the time,” the chief minister said.
“Therefore, this is being done as per the provisions in other departments, where executive engineers have certain delegation of financial powers. So what is there in other departments, similar delegation of financial powers have been given to the executive engineers in the Fisheries department,” he said.
Higher pay scale
The Finance department has been asked to take necessary decisions to bring at par employees, who are eligible for Assured Career Progressive Scheme (ACPS), and those who are eligible for promotion.
A government employee upon attaining seniority gets higher pay scale as per ACPS if his/her job does not have any provision for promotion.
However, there have been instances of anomalies when an employee entitled through ACPS gets higher pay scale than even that of his/her seniors.
“This normally occurs once in a while in certain departments,” chief minister Conrad Sangma said.
Today, the Finance department has been empowered to bring the two cases on par and ensure no anomalies in future
“The cabinet has given approval for the Finance department on a case-to-case basis to look into these areas and take necessary decisions to bring them on a par,” he said.
Guarantor of loans
The cabinet on Friday also approved the Meghalaya Ceiling on Government Guarantor’s Bill, which will be introduced in the upcoming budget session of the state assembly
The Bill is required for the state government to come up with proper mechanism or structure while guaranteeing loans to government agencies.
The government has been providing guarantee to banks for various agencies such as MeECL and MTDC to avail loans.
“But, this was mostly done without proper a mechanisms or a structure,” Sangma said underlining the need to introduce the Bill.
“Government of India, especially the RBI, has asked the different state governments to come up with an Act that will put a ceiling or a structure overall to these government guarantees,” the chief minister said.
This will fix a limit for various agencies as to for how much amount they can avail government guarantee for loans, he said.
Pension rules
The state cabinet also approved a proposal to repeal the Meghalaya Civil Service Commutation of Pension Rules, 1992 and replaced it with new rules pertaining to commutation of pensions of all government employees.
“There are certain areas of concern and processes that were very complicated… those processes have now been refined…the idea is to make the commutation of the pensions easier for the retired employees…,” the chief minister said.
The new rules will make the entire process of commutation of the pension much simpler and much easier for government employees, he added.
Water supply
Further, the cabinet approved the proposal to authorise East Khasi Hills deputy commissioner to facilitate the process of land required for New Shillong Water Supply Scheme (NSWSS).
“A small plot of land is required by the PHE department. So the DRDA, that is the DC, will be the authorised agency to accordingly do the necessary purchase,” the CM said.
R-Day VVIPs
The cabinet has also finalised the list of VIPs, who will be taking the salute during the upcoming Republic Day celebrations across the state.
