Departmental Registers- Revenue Allocation Register, Register of Works, Register of Capital etc

Departmental Registers

1468. Registers maintained in the Accounts Office. --With a view to facilitate the control of expenditure and also to record, collect and abstract under the prescribed heads of administrative accounts total outlay of the Railway, the following Registers are required to be maintained by the Accounts Officer: --

(i)         Revenue Allocation Register (Form E.1469).

(ii)        Register of Works (Form E.1473).

(iii)       Registers of Capital, Depreciation Reserve Fund, Development Fund and Open Line Works--Revenue Expenditure. (Form E.1480).

Each of the first two registers will be maintained by months and every voucher after being passed in Accounts will be posted in the register concerned in the appropriate column as regards allocation. The fact that a voucher has been so posted will be noted on the voucher. The up-to-date figures in the registers will enable the Accounts Office to exercise necessary checks with reference to estimates and allotments.

1469. Revenue Allocation Registers. 

The entries in the Revenue Allocation Registers maintained in the Accounts Office shall be sub-divided as under:--

Cash;Transfers; Stores and sufficient space should be left after each head for the entries which normally come under it. Alternatively, separate registers may be maintained to record the expenditure in these three divisions, in which case a separate summary will have to be prepared to arrive at the total expenditure under the various heads of revenue classification. The sanctions by heads of accounts as given in the Authorization Rolls or the Distribution Statement of budget allotment should be entered in red ink at the head of the several Abstracts so as to form a ready means of comparison and check with the outlay and to admit of this being done the grand total expenditure for each month will be deducted at the foot of the abstract form ((Form E.1469); the sanctioned amount and the balance thus arrived at will be carried forward in red ink from month to month. At the end of the month when the Registers have been totalled, the 'Cash' totals will be agreed with the debits to 'Demand Payable' in the Monthly Classified Abstract of Cash transactions and a journal slip will be prepared crediting 'Demand Payable' and debiting the various Abstracts of the Revenue Accounts.

 Form E.1469

ALLOCATION REGISTER

(Abstract A to II.....and J to N)

For the month of ………...Allotment for the year

Sl. No.	Particulars of transactions	Voucher		Detailed heads of accounts as per Revenue Classifications and Demand heads			Total	Grand Total	Serial No.	Remarks
		No.	Date	Rs. P.	Rs. P.	Rs. P.	Rs. P.	Rs. P.

Total for the month. ................... ..............

And total to end of the.............…………

previous month.

Total to end of the. ................... ..............

month.

 _________________________________________________________________________________________

*In column 5 under Total should be posted "Wages and Materials" or "Ordinary and Special" According to the requirements of the rules.

 Note:¾ The expenditure (other than on Survey) under the major head 345-A/B policy formulation direction, research and other miscellaneous Organisation should be recorded in separate register in accordance with the prescribed classification.

1470. The Registers (Form E.1469 for Abstract B.)

Maintenance of Permanent Way and Works should be maintained for each Executive Division and for each branch line worked under agreement. These registers may be kept by sub-divisions as well, if the Executive Officers so desire, for the effective control of expenditure against allotment. Expenditure on particular sections of the line may also be separately booked in these Registers if such booking is needed for the proper classification of expenditure or for any statistical or other purposes. At the end of the month the totals of these Registers should be abstracted into a separate sheet of the same Form E.1469 in order to arrive at the total outlay against Abstract ‘B'. 

1471. Reconciliation of Allocation Registers with General Rooks.

The total expenditure in the Registers should be verified each month with the debit to each Abstract in the General Books and a certificate of examination and verification enfaced on the register. The 'month' totals of each register should then be posted into the yearly Registers month to month to provide the figures required for the preparation of the Working Expenses' portion of the yearly Administrative Capital and Revenue Accounts. Alternatively the up-to-date totals may be brought forward in the Allocation Registers themselves.

1472. Register of works. --is a collective record of expenditure designed :

(i)         for effecting control of expenditure on works with reference to estimates, by facilitating comparison between the expenditure incurred on each work and the detailed provision made in the estimate for work;

(ii)        for effecting budgetary control, by facilitating a comparison between the budget allotment for the work and the actual expenditure to the end of the month; and

(iii)       to enable any material modification (see para 1109) occurring being spotted.

1473. Single sit of Works Register--Detailed Register of Works in Form E.1473 given below should be kept for all sanctioned works including those chargeable to Revenue, new minor work showing the amounts of estimates sanctioned. This register shall be maintained in the Accounts Office both for open line and construction organisation.

Form E.1473

.............................Railway

WORKS REGISTER

Name of work ...............

Authority ................…….

Capital........... .Rs. case……………Rs…………. Budget allotment for the year

Depreciation Fund.............................Rs.      Stores.................. Rs. Original Estimate No…………..

Development Fund .......................... Rs.      Total ....................Rs. Revised Estimate No....

Accident Compensation............................

Passenger Amenities Fund ................... ......

Open Line Works Revenue ................

Revenue ................. Rs.

Date of Commencement ..............

Date of Completion ..............

Date	No. of voucher	Particulars	Items of Estimate					Head of Accounts
			Amount	Amount	Amount	Amount	Capital	DRF	Revenue	Development Fund
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11

Advance payment for supply of materials	Materials at site	Value of materials received in advance of payment of contractor	Total charges
			Cash	Stores	Total
12	13	14	15	16	17

 1474. This register should show the amount of estimate sanctioned, the budget allotment and details of expenditure on each work by heads of accounts and in addition under sub-heads of estimates in case of track renewal works estimated to cost Rs.3 lakhs and over and Rs.1 lakh and over In the case of other works. In this register sub-heads of estimate estimated to cost less than Rs. 10,000 need not be separately detailed, hut may be grouped together as may be found  convenient. The Register may be arranged by detailed heads of classification (for works falling under the demand relating to creation and replacement of assets) separate folios being set apart for each work. At the close of every month the Register of Works should be totalled up and the monthly, yearly and 'up-to-date' totals for each work struck. The Register of Works should be preserved for a period of 10 years.

1475. In posting the Register of Works in the case of works, the accounts of which are kept by sub-heads, the last column relating to each work will always show the 'total charges', the last column but one will show value of materials received in advance of payment 'to contractors', the last column but two will show the value of the 'materials-at-site' and the last column but three will Show ‘advance payment for supply of materials'. In the Ease of works, the accounts of which are not kept by sub-heads (Form E.1479), the value of 'Materials-at-site' need not be separately shown but the value of materials received in advance of payment to contractor and advance payment for supply of materials, if any should be shown in all cases.

1476. Value of materials received in advance of payment to contractors.--When the materials are received before payments have been made, such transactions should be credited to a separate suspense head "Value of materials received in advance of payment to contractors" in the Register of Works under the head of account that will record a major part of the cost of work, the credit under the suspense head should be cleared as and when payment is made.

A Subsidiary Register for all purchase orders for such items should be maintained work wise by the Accounts Office and entries on credit side should be made under the initials of sub-head/Section Officer (Accounts) from the Receipt Note Part III received duly evaluated from Executive Officers concerned in terms of para  739-S. Receipt Notes should simultaneously be posted in Works Registers by debit to 'materials-at-site account/final head' and contra credit to 'value of materials received in advance of payment to contractors' referred to above. All payments chargeable to this head should be made after being posted on the debit side in the subsidiary register under the initials of the Controlling Officer. The balances in the subsidiary register should be reconciled monthly with those in the Works Registers.

Thus, for stares purchased for specific works the transactions will not find a place in the Stores budget under this procedure. Arrangements should, however, be made to ensure that the total figures of purchases during a year for specific works which do not pass through Stores Account are available with the Railways for statistical purposes etc.

CONTRACTORS' LEDGER and Check of Contractors' Bills

CONTRACTORS’ LEDGER Para 1483 E

 Form E. 1483                                                                                         CONTRACTORS LEDGER  

Dr.	Contractor's Ledger			Cr.
	Rs.	P.		Rs.	P.

Accounts relating to contractors should be kept as personal accounts in Contractors' ledger ( form E-1483 shown below) and a separate folio should be opened in the Contractors' Ledger for each contractor. The accounts of each contractor should exhibit all transactions with him, whether relating to one or several works or to materials purchased from him or supplied to him. The Contractors' Ledger should show the number and amount of each passed bill and certificate, briefly naming the work and the number and amount of the cheque. The amount of advance granted to a contractor as well as the value of material made over to the contractor against items for which he is paid the labour and material rates should be debited to his account and a receipt for the value thereof taken from him in respect of the debits.

The Contractors' Ledger should be posted as bills are paid and it should be closed and balanced monthly. A copy of his account in the ledger may be furnished to any contractor who wants it. Stores supplied to works under execution by contract should be accounted for as follows :-

(i)         when the contract is for labour only, by a direct charge as stores to the work to which it is issued.

(ii)        when the contract is for both labour and materials, as a debit to the contractor, the cost of stores as prescribed in para 1269 being either recovered in cash or debited to the Contractor’s account for subsequent recovery by deduction from the amount due to him for work done, in these cases an unstamped acknowledgement of the receipt of the material should be taken from the contractor.

It is normally maintained agreement wise or contract wise depending whether the work is special work or zonal work which is maintained only in respect of works contracts. 

Separate pages are generally opened for each work order or agreement. On the top of each page details of name of work, work order number, date and value and period of completion of work etc.

Every time a bill is passed for payment, the ledger accounts in respect of the particular work order is credited with the gross value of the work or supply. On the debit side of the recovered towards Security Deposit , income tax, postage and other recoveries towards materials or penalties  and net amount payable to the contractor. Both the debit and credit sides are balanced.

Incase of certain special works on the Open Line and project works, the ledger account is also debited with all the values of material supplied by the railway to the contractors and as and when the same are utilized on the work, corresponding credits are afforded. The balance shown the value of material got to be used by the contractors.

In cases where advance payment to have been made to the contractors, the same should be debited to the ledger accounts adjusted and when payments are made.

The ledger accounts will be reviewed periodically to see that there is no undue delay in the execution of works or supplies against the different work order contained in the ledger.

Details of work orders not complied with up to the date of review should also be made out. The concerned executives should be addressed in the matter for remarks.

Dates of commencement and completion of the work and the Measurement Book No and folios should also be mentioned in each ledger accounts.

The postings in the ledger should be of an accumulative type (sometimes inner columns for posting the current bills and outer columns for cumulative balance) that any time the gross amount of charges of the work or supply , total amount paid to the contractor total SD recovered, total Income Tax recovered during the year etc can be extracted.

This ledger is  put up along with every bill to the AO for signature.

Extracts of the ledger can be given to the contractor on some nominal payment.

Contractors bills:

These are three types ie petty contract bills, running or on account bills and final bils.

Petty contract bills or First and Final Bill is prepared  where the single payment is involved for the work or supply completed.

Running or on accounts bills are prepared in contact work (not supplies for which suppliers bills are used)  towards part completion or stage completion of the works.

Final bills are prepared for making final payment when the running account of the work is closed finally.   A hand receipt or a bill towards advance payment is used whenever some advance is paid to the contactor.

Check of contractors bills

1. These bills are prepared in the prescribed railway forms for different types of bills.
2. The bills are initially prepared in  AXEN /ADEN offices for the Civil Engineering Dept and in respective executive offices of other Depts.
3. They are prepared with reference to the measurement recorded in the respective MB duly applying the rates shown either in the work order or agreement.
4. The bills are signed by both the contractor and the AXEN/ADEN/Executive officers
5. These are submitted along with the MB to the Divisional Office in Triplicate
6. The Divisional Office will verify the MB as well as the accuracy of the bill and submit the same in duplicate (original and duplicate) to the concerned accounts officer for check
7. Wherever there is a DA/WA is attached to the executive offices, the MB are checked by her/him and all the quantities mentioned in the bills.
8. In such a case in the accounts office, the rates and arithmetical accuracy of the bills are checked with reference to the work order or agreement.
9. Bills found to be in order are then passed for payment duly entering in the respective contactors ledger.
10. Payments are made only thru crossed cheques and sent to the contractors addresses by Registered Post with Acknowledgment Due. Now thru RTGS, EFT and NEFT to ensure transparency and quick transfer.

eRecon Electronic Reconciliation

Now discussion on e recon
E recon was started in April 2011
 E reconciliation transfer of Rly transactions are made through erecon
 Server being hosted by W rly.
 Concurrent booking of expenditure
 Carrying books and movement of staff dispensed. Scanning vouchers and onward transmission to destination
 Minimal return by destination
 It replaced physical reconciliation meetings every three months. Saved man-hours, money and travel. It is done completely as physical reconciliation and all principles envisaged in A-I are duly followed.
 A lot of money on account of TA to staff could be saved due to online transfers and dispensation of TDTC  meetings.
 It provides a real time access
 Referee has taken place of the Presiding Officer.
 Transactions are taking thru out
 Is it working for inter and intra division ..for both
 Dispute resolving mechanism is inbuilt through referee who is changed every quarter.
 Booking to suspense i e MAR and Deposit is minimised
 Moreover a lot of paper is saved since it is being done through electronically.  As far as inter railways, any transaction between railways should be routed only through e-recon i.e., Central Books of each railway will transfer the JEs from division to foreign railways and vice versa

While transfer division(i.e., division to division  transactions)  transactions can be done IPAS also. In southern railway, most of the division accept TCs in e-recon but JEs are prepared in IPAS. Inspire of its implementation, earnings are not adjusted thru e recon and in a way it is not totally advantageous. Most of the difference and disputes stretched to  till the closure of financial year

It has some problems in diversion cases. Now it is resolved with CRIS sending two matrix of apportionment one on booked route and the other on carried route. Diversion debits are adjusted by CRIS.

There is one more matrix by RITES for earnings. Because of this variation earning railways like SECR is losing although it has no bearing on IR, still zonal railways performance is measured by earnings and expenditure. A remedy is to be identified and resolved at the earliest.

PS
However let us not answer  adversely and be diplomatic in your answer and suggest for system improvement.

Source: Group sharing on eRECON in the CTARA whatsapp  group. compiled on 21/11/2015.
Thanks to all contributors

OUTCOME BUDGET

OUTCOME BUDGET

It is practiced by most of the Ministries while preparing their budget details and submitting it to the Ministry of Finance for the preparation of the annual budget towards the end of February. Outcome based budgeting is a practice of suggesting and listing of estimated outcomes of each programmes or schemes designed.

One of the leading budgeting technique followed in India at present is the outcome budgeting or outcome based budgeting. It is practiced by most of the Ministries while preparing their budget details and submitting it to the Ministry of Finance for the preparation of the annual budget towards the end of February. Outcome based budgeting is a practice of suggesting and listing of estimated outcomes of each programmes or schemes designed.

Outcomes are the end products and results of various Government initiatives and interventions, including those involving partnership with the State Governments, Public Sector Undertakings, autonomous bodies and the community. An interesting feature of outcome based budgeting is that the outcomes of programmes are measured not just in terms of Rupees but also in terms of physical units like Kilowatt of energy produced or tonnes of steel produced. Also outcomes are expressed in terms of qualitative targets and achievements to make the technique more comprehensive.

Procedure of outcome based budgeting  

Under outcome budgeting, each Ministry presents a preliminary Outcome Budget to the Finance Ministry, which is responsible for compiling them. The Outcome Budget becomes a progress card on what various Ministries and Departments have done with the outlays in the previous annual budget. It measures the development outcomes of all government programmes and whether the money has been spent for the purpose it was sanctioned including the outcome of the fund usage. Outcome budget is a performance measurement tool that helps in: 

·      Better service delivery

·      Decision-making 

·      Evaluating programme performance and results 

·      Communicating programme goals

·      Improving programme effectiveness

·      Make budgets cost effective 

·      Fix accountability 

·      Aid better scheme management

Outcome budgeting makes government programmes more result oriented, instead of outlay oriented. Under outcome budgeting, the document shows physical dimensions of the financial budget indicating the actual physical performance in the previous year, current year and targeted performance during the projected (next) year.

From 2007-08 onwards, the previous Performance Budget was merged with Outcome Budget. There was only one document i.e. the Outcome Budget. All Ministries have to prepare outcome budgets to make the budgeting target oriented.

 In Railways

1 The performance budgeting came into effect in Railways in 1979-80 and has been gradually stabilizing for purposes of management control over the costs in relation to the physical activity. Before discussing the merits and advantages of P.B, it is necessary to have an understanding the form of budget which was in existence prior to the introduction of Performance Budgeting.

in one of the reports the World Bank Study team has described Budget as prepared in the Past as a "routine and dogged exercise, undertaken and produced by the bureaucratic elite" The form in which the Railway Budget was presented to Parliament till 1979-80 provided for appropriation of funds for certain items of expenditure falling under each demand without correlating expenditure to the quantum of service to be rendered with the aid of the funds sanctioned. For all practical purposes the Budget was a portrayal or record of cash transactions and their anticipations; it did not at all serve as a tool for management or as a device for evaluation performance-

The Conventional Budget was more ‘appropriation oriented’ than 'performance oriented’. There were in all 22 demands for grants not strictly representing homogeneous functional groups or activities though the demands for grants’ are supposed to basically represent the estimated expenditure in a 'Single' or ‘homogeneous’ group of functions. The other defects in the old system of budgeting were;-

i)    The Accounts heads under the detailed heads of accounts did not correlate with the Budget heads. The expenditure under demands had to be collected from different revenue abstracts.

ii)    Budget had little relevance to performance.

iii)   When Parliament sanctioned the budget, it was not aware of the quantum of services that would be rendered in The various aspects of Railway activities,

2 Based on the recommendations of a Task Force appointed for the purpose the demands for grants have been restructured with the approval of the Estimates Committee. It was therefore considered necessary that the budget as a document must be capable of fulfilling the following objectives:-

i)    to present more clearly the purpose and objectives for which funds are sought and to bring out the programmes and accomplishments in  financial  and physical terms.

ii)    to help in the better understanding and review of the budget

iii)   to improve the formulation of the budget and to aid the process of decision making at all levels of Govt., and

iv)    to incorporate an element of accountability,

3 Performance budgeting therefore, implies fixing in advance performance, targets, under each activity, in acceptable and feasible measures of output, fixing corresponding finance outlay for achieving these physical outputs and monitoring and comparing the actual performance both in physical and financial terms.

The steps involved in Performance Budgeting, are identification of functions, programmes and activities. In order to achieve the objectives of P.B, the demands for grants have been restructured to spell out the functions, activities and objects. Each demand has 3 subdivisions -

i)    Sub Heads of Demands representing major functions,

ii)    Detailed Heads representing further break-up of the activity classification i.e. identifying 'Why' the expenditure is incurred,    

iii)   Primary Units identifying 'what' the expenditure denotes (objects of expenditure, i.e salary, allowances, material etc)

An example of concordance between the Sub-Heads of Demands for Grants and Main Heads of Accounting Classification is given below :-

15.4 For purpose of Managerial Control over the costs in relation to the physical activity, norms of quantity  inputs and outputs and standards will have to be fixed and monitored on the basis of Unit Costs. At present Unit Costs can be assessed for few demands viz. Demand No.5, 6 and It). The units of performance have however been prescribed for all Revenue Demands. Few Examples are given below:-

Demand	Nature of demand	Performance units
Demand No 4	Repairs and Maintenance of Permanent  Way and Works- The staff and non - staff expenditure of the technical side pertaining to civil Engineering Dept. including Bridge, water supply, maintenance of buildings etc.	P Way –           Equated Track KM Service –         10 Sq Mts of plinth area Water supply – million liters for 10 m 2 Bridges –          linear meters
Demand No 5	Repairs and Maintenance of Motive Power The staff and non - staff expenditure of the technical side pertaining to Mechanical Engineering Dept. including maintenance of steam, diesel locomotives  both in open line and in workshops etc.	Steam locos-         Engine holding/outage Runnig repairs POH, IOH and Spl Reparis Diesel locos Electric Locos
Demand No 6	Repairs and Maintenance of Motive Power The staff and non - staff expenditure of the technical side pertaining to Mechanical Engineering Dept. including maintenance of coaches, wagons both in open line and in workshops etc.	Carriages: Running repairs- out turn in sick line in terms of vehicle units and No of trains dealt with in yards/stations POH and Spl Repairs – repair units
Demand No 7	Repairs and Maintenance of Plant and  Equipment. The staff and non - staff  expenditure of the technical side pertaining to  Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, Signal &  Telecommunication Engineering  both in open  line and in workshops etc.	Civil Engg Dept, Mech and Electrical – No of machines Over head equipment – Ele Engines / EMU Kms Signalling equipment- No of trains