Wasteful Expenses to Cut by 20% | 18 Jan 2020

The Union Government has decided to reduce wasteful expenditure on items such as travel, food and conferences by 20%.

The decision was taken in a recent meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Investment and Growth (CCIG).
CCIG is a newly formed cabinet committee, constituted in June 2019.
It is chaired by the Prime Minister.

The decision is to avoid fiscal slippage by containing non-development expenditure and controlling fiscal deficit well within the limit of budgeted target of 3.3% during the FY 2019-20.
This is not the first time that the government has resorted to austerity measures for rationalisation of expenditure. In October 2014, the Government had asked to cut non-Plan expenditure by 10%.
Such austerity measures are intended at promoting fiscal discipline, without restricting the operational efficiency of the Government.
In the context of the current fiscal situation, there is a need to rationalise expenditure and optimise available resources.