The government has notified austerity measures, including a complete ban on purchasing all types of new vehicles and creating a new post (except required for development projects) owing to financial constraints.

The Finance Ministry notified the measures stated that owing to financial constraints, the austerity measures have been enforced during the financial year 2021-22 with immediate effect.

There shall be a complete ban on the purchase of all types of vehicles both for current and development expenditure, excluding motorcycles, student buses, ambulances, and firefighting vehicles.

There shall be a complete ban on the creation of new posts except those required for development projects and approved by the competent authority.

The privilege of periodical magazines, newspapers, etc., to the entitled officers, will remain restricted to only one.

Principal Accounting Officers (PAOs) will ensure rationalized utility consumption, i.e., electricity, gas, telephone, water, etc., and the expenditure on purchase of assets, repair and maintenance, and all other operational expenditures shall be kept at a bare minimum level while remaining within the budgetary allocation for the financial year.

Two sides of paper shall be used in all official communications.

All outstation meetings will be held through internet link (Zoom etc.) only unless physical presence is strongly justified and approved by the competent authority.

In the above context, to cater to the indispensable needs of the Ministries/Divisions/ Departments/Organizations, etc., an Austerity Committee has been constituted comprising the following officers to review the critical/unavoidable/significant proposals only, in respect of ban on the purchase of vehicles/creation of posts imposed.

• Additional Finance Secretary (Expenditure) (In Chair);

• Senior Joint Secretary/Joint Secretary (Expenditure-CGA) (Member);

• Senior Joint Secretary/Joint Secretary (Member) (Expenditure-concerned Ministry Division) Finance Division;

• Representative of the concerned Ministry/Division (Member) Department (Not less than an officer in BS-20); and

• Deputy Secretary (Expenditure-CGA) Secretary.

All Ministries/Divisions have been directed to disseminate the instructions to all departments/ organizations under their administrative control for strict compliance.

Source: Pro Pakistani