Finance Division has scheduled Priorities Committee meetings, which will be co-chaired by finance secretary, secretary planning and secretary Economic Affairs Division, from Monday to Friday (April 2-6) to review and finalize recurrent and development budget for the next fiscal year (2018-19). Sources said that Finance Division wrote a letter to the ministries and divisions on March 28 and drew their attention to earlier communication of March 21, 2018 regarding indicative budget ceilings (2018-21) and stated that March 30 is the last date for submission of budget requirements (2018-19) to the Budget Wing of Finance Division.
However, sources said that some ministries have directed their related departments to forward their proposals before closing hours of April 2, 2018 for onward submission to the Finance Division. In the Priorities Committee meetings, ministries and division are required to bring brief summaries on: (i) services (output) the principal accounting officer (PAO) will deliver in the next 3 years; (ii) allocation of 3 years ceilings for recurrent and development budget by services (output); (iii) the main challenges PAO would like to highlight; (iv) and actual services (outputs) for the year 2016-17 as compared to budgetary allocation.