Rule 10 — DFPR

Powers of Administrative Ministries or Departments- (9) Subject to the provisions above, Chief Accounting Authorities of Administrative Ministries or Departments shall have the following powers, namely:-

Rule 10- Appropriation and Re-Appropriation – General Restrictions– (1) Save with prior approval of the Parliament, funds shall not be appropriated or re-appropriated to meet expenditure on a New Service or New Instrument of Service (NS or NIS) not contemplated in the budget as approved by Parliament. For deciding whether a case relates to a New Service or New Instrument of Service and for determining whether prior approval of Parliament is required or it is to be reported to Parliament along with the next batch of supplementary demands, the financial limits prescribed by the Budget Division, Department of Economic Affairs, from time to time shall be referred to. (2) Funds shall not be appropriated or re-appropriated to meet expenditure which has not been sanctioned by an authority competent to sanction it. (3) Funds shall not be appropriated or re-appropriated to any work which has not received administrative approval and technical sanction as prescribed by Government of India from time to time. (4) Funds provided for charged expenditure shall not be appropriated or reappropriated to meet voted expenditure and funds provided for voted expenditure shall not be appropriated or re-appropriated to meet charged expenditure. (5) No Re-appropriation shall be made from one grant or Appropriation for charged expenditure to another Grant or Appropriation for charged expenditure. (6) No Re-appropriation can be made from Capital to Revenue Section of the Grant or vice versa. (7) No Re-appropriation can be made from an appropriation already augmented through a Supplementary Demand for Grant passed by the Parliament or under the provisions of this rule. (8) No Re-appropriation can be made from savings under an activity for which a Contingency Fund Advance has already been obtained during the course of the financial year.

(i) To augment the provisions of the heads ‘Salaries’, ‘Allowances’, ‘Wages’, ‘Pensionary Charges’, ‘Medical Expenses’ and ‘Rent, Rates and Taxes for Land and Buildings’ through Re-appropriation.

(ii) To re-appropriate funds from the Object head ‘Salaries’ to the Object head ‘Salaries’ across the schemes.

(iii) To augment provisions already approved by Parliament through the Supplementary Demands for Grants.

(iv) To re-appropriate funds from lump-sum provision for northeast areas to concerned schemes. However, this delegation of powers is limited to re-appropriation of funds from lump-sum provision to the scheme for the benefit of Scheme or programs in the northeast areas alone.

(v) To appropriate or re-appropriate to any work, to cover excess of expenditure over authorised sanctioned financial limits up to 20 %, subject to such excess expenditure being approved by the Competent Authority.

(vi) To augment a budget provision, under any line item ending at an object head, to such limits permitted by Ministry of Finance through its various specific or general orders issued from time to time.

(vii) Ministries or Departments are required to exercise the powers delegated under these rules for re-appropriation of funds in consultation with the respective Financial Advisors, who shall ensure that the provisions of these rules are strictly adhered to.

Cases requiring prior approval of Ministry of Finance- (10) Notwithstanding anything contained in this rule, except with the previous consent of the Budget Division with concurrence of Secretary (Expenditure):-

(i) No Re-appropriation of funds shall be carried out to meet expenditure in the Revenue Section from savings under grants-in-aid to States or Union territories.

(ii) No Re-appropriation of funds shall be made between Capital Outlay and loans or vice-versa, in Capital Section;

(iii) No Re-appropriation of funds shall be made from ‘Salaries’ or ‘Allowances’ head to any other “primary unit of appropriation”.

(iv) No Re-appropriation shall be made from provisions made for Externally Aided Projects (EAPs) to Non-Externally Aided Projects.

(v) No Re-appropriation shall be made from and to the provision for Secret Service Expenditure. In case of augmentation by 25% or more of the original provision, prior approval of C&AG would also be required.

(vi) No Re-appropriation shall be made from the primary unit “Buildings and Structures/ Infrastructure Assets/ Other Fixed Assets” to any other unit.

(vii) No Appropriation or Re-appropriation shall be made to any work, to cover excess of expenditure over authorized financial limits beyond 20 %.

(viii) No Re-appropriation having the effect of augmenting a budget provision, under any line item ending at an object head, shall be made beyond the limits prescribed by the Ministry of Finance through its various specific or general orders issued from time to time.

(ix) No Re-appropriation of funds to a head from which funds were previously redirected or re-appropriated to another head.

Government of India’s decision (1): Re-appropriation of funds – Revised Guidelines - This Department has decided to propose revised norms for re-appropriation of funds to bring more flexibility in order to enable Ministries/Departments in managing their budget and to decide on the nature and limit of expenditure.

2. Accordingly, all previous orders/instructions issued in this regard will become null and void from the date of issue of this O.M. 3. All Ministries/Departments should ensure that there is no violation of revised norms for re-appropriation of funds. Further, following points should be adhered to while resorting to any re-appropriation of funds:- i. No re-appropriation shall be made during the first quarter of a financial year without the prior approval of Ministry of Finance. ii. No re-appropriation shall be made from savings arising under various Central Schemes or Centrally Sponsored Schemes to augment the provisions of Establishment Expenditure of a Ministry/Department without the prior approval of Ministry of Finance.

Nature of Expenditure Object Heads Delegated Power Administrative Department/Ministry Establishment Expenditure * Office Expenses, Other Revenue Expenditure, Domestic Travel Expenses, Foreign Travel Expenses Up to Rs.2 crore. Minor Works**, Professional Services, Rewards, Leave Travel Expenses, Training Expenses, Materials and Supplies, Cost of Ration, Fuels and Lubricants, Minor Civil and Electric Works, Repair and Maintenance, Bank and Agency Charges and Loss in Exchange Up to Rs.5 crore. NonEstablishment Expenditure All other object heads Up to Rs 15 crore.

iii. Normally the savings available under mandatory 10% provision earmarked for the northeast areas are not available for re-appropriation to meet other additionalities under non-northeast area expenditure. However, if there has been overall reduction in total expenditure ceiling of any ministry/department at Revised Estimate Stage and the savings under northeast areas as corollary is available, the same may be used to meet the additionalities under the other items in order to avoid bloating of appropriations.

iv. All proposals of re-appropriation of funds, which require approval of Ministry of Finance, relating to establishment related expenditure of a Ministry/Department, referred to Pers. Division of Department of Expenditure while all other proposals may be referred to Budget Division, Department of Economic Affairs.

v. Monetary Limits for re-appropriation powers of Ministries/Departments:

*As per Annexure B to the Ministry of Finance’s OM No.1(22)-B(AC)/2022 dated 23.02.2024 placed at Appendix- I. ** Minor Civil & Electrical Works.

4. Reporting Limit to Parliament on Re-appropriation - Any order for re-appropriation, issued during a financial year, which has the effect of increasing the budget provision under any line item ending at an object head by more than 20% of Budget Estimates or ` 100 crore, whichever is more, shall be reported to the Parliament along with the last batch of Supplementary Demands of the financial year. However, if such an order is issued after the last batch of supplementary demands, prior approval of Department of Expenditure shall be obtained by the concerned Department.

2. Considering the technical nature of the re-appropriation, this Department has decided the following: i. Re-appropriation of funds earmarked for North East Region from the non-functional Major Heads (2552, 4552 and 6552) to the functional heads from which actual expenditure is incurred, is delegated to the Secretary of the Ministry/Department concerned, including re-appropriations during the first quarter of the financial year. The Secretary may further delegate such powers to any officer not below the rank of Joint Secretary or equivalent level officer. ii. All other re-appropriations from the NER to non-NER purposes shall continue to require the approval of the respective Secretaries or the Ministry of Finance, as applicable. iii. The relaxation allowed at 3

(i) is not applicable for Ministry of Development of NER.

[Ministry of Finance DoE O.M. No. 01(14)/2016-E.II(A)(Part-III), dated 01.04.2024] Government of India’s decision (2): Re-appropriation of funds earmarked for NER - It is noted that lump sum funds are earmarked to various Ministries/Departments, for northeast areas under non-functional heads, i.e., Major Heads 2552, 4552, and 6552. These non-functional heads are merely control heads from which no actual expenditure is made during the normal course (except in case of Ministry of Development of NER). For incurring expenditure, these funds are mandatorily routed from the non-functional heads to the functional heads in the respective schemes. The use of NER heads for obtaining appropriation from Parliament and subsequent re-appropriation to respective functional heads arises from the need to capture the allocation for the NER region in the budget documents. Re-appropriations from these non-functional heads are therefore unavoidable and technical in nature.

[Ministry of Finance DoE O.M. No. 02(01)/2024-E.II(A) dated 03.06.2024]