Agartala, Aug. 8: The Tripura government, reeling under a severe resource crunch as a result of less-than-expected devolution of funds from the 13th Finance Commission, has enforced unprecedented austerity measures to keep government expenses in check.

A confidential circular, issued by joint secretary (finance) Apurba Roy on July 31, blamed the resource crunch on the 13th Finance Commission and launched a 22-point austerity drive.

As part of the measures to reduce expenses, government departments have been directed to cut down electricity and telephone bills, stick to budgetary allocations while incurring expenses, not to make any appointments without concurrence from the ministry of finance and the cabinet, keep petty expenses in limit and not to purchase any new vehicle.

The police department, too, has been directed not to purchase or hire any new vehicle, though centrally funded modernisation of the department will continue.

The government will keep purchase and installation of new computers, Xerox machines, scanners, video cameras, mobile phones, furniture, TV sets under restriction. Organising fairs outside the state also has been barred.

The government will strictly monitoring payment of medical bills, leave travel concession and travelling allowance. The existing rules and regulations of the government will have to be strictly followed to declare a visitor a state guest.

A high level committee, headed by chief secretary S.K. Panda, will monitor the compliance of austerity measures by the departments while finance minister Badal Chowdhury will be in charge of overall supervision.

Official sources in the finance department said low receipt of funds from the Finance Commission created a major crisis.

“The state budget of Rs 6,693 crore shows only a marginal rise compared with the Rs 6,551 crore allocated last year. Even the modest rise in overall expenses for 2010-2011 includes a deficit of Rs 186 crore. Initially it was expected that receipts from the Finance Commission would offset the deficit later in the financial year. However, the possibility seems remote now,” a source said.

The source said less than expected receipts from the finance commission also resulted in lower allocations for 50 of altogether 56 departments of the state government in the current year’s budget compared with last year.

Despite official efforts to pin the blame on the Finance Commission, the state government is drawing flak from the Opposition for financial status of the state.

“The government had furnished loads of wrong information and statistics to the Finance Commission which was exposed when the commission’s chairman and members reconciled the state’s accounts with that of the Comptroller Auditor General (CAG). That is why receipt was less than claimed,” said leader of Opposition Ratanlal Nath.