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Government Tweaks Spending Rules For Buying Essential Supplies To Combat Coronavirus

Finance Ministry tweaked procurement and expenditure norms to allow buying and transportation of essential supplies.

Pedestrians wearing protective masks walk across a road in Mumbai, India, on Saturday, March 21, 2020. Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg
Pedestrians wearing protective masks walk across a road in Mumbai, India, on Saturday, March 21, 2020. Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg

The Finance Ministry has tweaked its procurement and expenditure norms to allow buying and transportation of medical and other essential supplies to curb the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Relaxations have been provided to Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Textiles, Department of Consumer Affairs and Ministry of Civil Aviation.

The government will allow these ministries to procure supplies from multiple sources, and at different rates, according to a government memorandum. The rule to procure non-consulting services, including air and other transportation services, has also been relaxed to avail the service from more than one source, it said.

Government departments at present must procure supplies only from a single source or manufacturer. Ministries are also required to source supplies and services only through the government e-marketplace based on availability. These rules have been relaxed due to the urgency involved in procuring medical supplies where delays may result in loss of life, the memorandum said. These relaxations will last till April 30 and may be extended further.

If supplies are to be procured from other countries, these will have to be done by Indian Missions, who will fix prices in consultation with the ministry concerned.

Spending Relaxations

The memorandum, issued on March 27, says ministries can spend for such supplies using the unutilised funds allocated in the budget until March 31. If they don’t have sufficient funds, each ministry can spend up to Rs 200 crore in addition, it said. If more funds are required, permission from Finance Ministry will be required.

For expenditure made after April 1, the departments will have to seek approval from the ministry within three days. The amount spent, however, shall not exceed quarterly expenditure plan of ministries submitted to the Parliament for April-June, the memorandum said. Ministries can, however, seek approval of the finance ministry if the spend exceeds quarterly planned expenditure.