Financial Administration and GFR

The GFR thresholds, GeM procurement, service rules and LTC that a Principal actually signs off.

Where candidates lose marks on this

1. Reversing the funds. The Contingency Fund is at the disposal of the President and is used for unforeseen expenditure with parliamentary approval obtained afterwards; the Consolidated Fund can be touched only under an appropriation made by law, so anything drawn from it by pure executive order is unconstitutional. And do not forget the third pot: withdrawals from the Public Account need no parliamentary appropriation, because that money belongs to depositors, not to the government.
2. Giving the Estimates Committee Rajya Sabha members. It has 30 members, every one of them from the Lok Sabha. The 15 + 7 split belongs to the PAC and COPU (22 each).
3. Making the PAC's Opposition chairman a legal requirement. It is a convention followed since 1967. Similarly, the Estimates Committee's chairman is from the ruling party, and Ministers may not be members of any of the three committees.
4. Calling compulsory retirement a minor penalty. Compulsory retirement, removal and dismissal are all MAJOR penalties. So is any reduction in pay with cumulative effect and any reduction to a lower grade or post.
5. Blurring removal and dismissal. Both terminate service, but removal is not a disqualification for future government employment, whereas dismissal ordinarily is. Dismissal is the severest penalty in the list.
6. Treating Child Care Leave as an annual entitlement. CCL is 730 days over the entire service, for the two eldest surviving children, available to women and single male government servants, paid at 100% for the first 365 days and 80% thereafter.
7. Getting the commuted-leave ratio wrong. One day of commuted leave = two days of half pay leave debited, at full pay, normally on a medical certificate.
8. Mixing up the pension percentages. Employee contributes 10% in both NPS and UPS. Government contributes 14% under NPS and 18.5% under UPS. The UPS assured payout is 50% of the average basic pay of the last 12 months for 25 years' qualifying service, with an assured minimum of ₹10,000 per month after 10 years, and a family payout of 60%.
9. Swapping the cut-motion amounts. Token cut = reduced by ₹100 (a symbolic protest about a specific grievance); policy cut = reduced to ₹1 (outright disapproval of the policy). An "economy cut" names an actual sum to be saved.
10. Confusing the budget facts. Presentation moved to 1 February from 2017-18; the Railway Budget was merged and the Plan/Non-Plan distinction abolished in the same year; the financial year is still 1 April to 31 March. And charged expenditure is not votable but is discussable, while the Rajya Sabha never votes demands for grants at all.

Where this is taught

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