As the State is struggling to raise resources to maintain revenue expenditure, it is also under tremendous pressure from contractors whose bills are pending for payment. The two major spending departments — Public Works and Water Resources — alone have a total of about ₹10,700 crore payment due to contractors. Many other departments also have a pile up of pending bills.
Government sources pointed out that PWD has pending bills worth ₹5,200 crore and Water Resources has about ₹5,500 crore. “All efforts are now to prioritise projects and bill payments will come later. Government is under pressure from contractors to release the money. It is important because the contractor has to restart operations for which money is required,” government sources admitted.
Sources also said that only those projects that are identified as priority work would be receiving money. “This is to be identified based on how much money is required and how much is available. There is no scope for new works as already the cost of approved and ongoing works is very high,” he said.
Big ongoing works
The government estimate of big ongoing works is more than ₹55,000 crore, PWD alone accounting for about ₹29,000 crore. Sources confirmed that the allocation cut to departments would affect the capacity to execute these works too. “Priority will be accorded to only the much needed works,” said a source in PWD.
Multiple sources said that the State-funded projects could get affected drastically while the State is also expecting cuts for Centrally-funded projects. “The State finances are precarious and everyone knows about it. A guidelines issued by Finance Department recently also cautioned the departments to be alert about the Central funding to the projects that are likely to be cut,” said a government source.
