Delegation of Financial Powers Rules 2024 — Rule 10, Appropriation and Re-Appropriation Complete Guide

1. What Is Re-Appropriation and Why Does It Need Rules?

Re-appropriation, as defined in Rule 3(1)(k), is the transfer by a Competent Authority of funds from one primary unit of appropriation (Object Head) to another to meet additional expenditure, within the same Section — Revenue or Capital — of the same Grant or Appropriation. In plain terms: if a Ministry has surplus funds under “Office Expenses” but is running short under “Domestic Travel Expenses,” re-appropriation lets it move money between the two without approaching Parliament afresh, provided the total size of the Grant itself does not change.

Because this power effectively lets the Executive reallocate funds that Parliament voted for one purpose to another purpose, Rule 10 wraps it in careful restrictions — general restrictions that apply to everyone, specific powers given to Chief Accounting Authorities, and a further set of absolute prohibitions that can only be crossed with the Finance Ministry’s (specifically, Budget Division’s, with Secretary Expenditure’s concurrence) prior consent.

2. General Restrictions (Rule 10(1)–(8))

Before any Re-appropriation power — however delegated — can be exercised, these baseline restrictions must be satisfied:

• No funds may be appropriated or re-appropriated for a New Service or New Instrument of Service (NS/NIS) not contemplated in the Parliament-approved budget, without Parliament’s prior approval — the financial limits for deciding what counts as NS/NIS are prescribed by the Budget Division, Department of Economic Affairs.
• Funds cannot be re-appropriated to meet expenditure not sanctioned by a Competent Authority.
• Funds cannot be re-appropriated to any work lacking Administrative Approval and Technical Sanction.
• Charged expenditure funds cannot be moved to voted expenditure, or vice versa.
• No re-appropriation is permitted between two charged-expenditure Grants/Appropriations.
• No re-appropriation between the Capital and Revenue Sections of a Grant, in either direction.
• No re-appropriation from an appropriation already augmented through a Parliament-passed Supplementary Demand (or through this very rule).
• No re-appropriation from savings under an activity already covered by a Contingency Fund Advance during the same financial year.

3. Powers of Chief Accounting Authorities (Rule 10(9))

Subject to the restrictions above, Chief Accounting Authorities of Administrative Ministries/Departments are given seven specific re-appropriation powers, including augmenting Salaries, Allowances, Wages, Pensionary Charges, Medical Expenses, and Rent/Rates/Taxes heads; re-appropriating within the Salaries Object Head across schemes; augmenting provisions already approved via Supplementary Demands; and — notably — re-appropriating up to 20% of authorised sanctioned financial limits to cover excess expenditure on a work, subject to Competent Authority approval of that excess. All such re-appropriations must be exercised in consultation with the respective Financial Adviser.

4. Cases Requiring Prior Approval of the Ministry of Finance (Rule 10(10))

Notwithstanding anything else in the rule, the following require the previous consent of the Budget Division with the concurrence of Secretary (Expenditure) before any re-appropriation:

• Re-appropriation into the Revenue Section from savings under grants-in-aid to States/UTs.
• Re-appropriation between Capital Outlay and Loans (or vice versa) within the Capital Section.
• Re-appropriation from ‘Salaries’ or ‘Allowances’ heads to any other primary unit.
• Re-appropriation from Externally Aided Project (EAP) provisions to Non-EAP provisions.
• Re-appropriation to or from Secret Service Expenditure (with C&AG’s approval also required if the augmentation is 25% or more).
• Re-appropriation from ‘Buildings and Structures / Infrastructure Assets / Other Fixed Assets’ to any other unit.
• Any re-appropriation to cover excess expenditure on a work beyond the 20% cap noted above.
• Any re-appropriation augmenting a budget provision beyond limits prescribed by the Finance Ministry.
• Re-appropriation of funds to a head from which funds were themselves previously re-appropriated away — a rule against “round-tripping” the same money.

5. Revised Monetary Limits for Re-Appropriation

A Government of India Decision under Rule 10 (following the Ministry of Finance’s O.M. No. 1(22)-B(AC)/2022 dated 23.02.2024) has revised the delegated re-appropriation powers of Administrative Ministries/Departments as follows:

Three additional operating guidelines accompany this table: no re-appropriation is permitted in the first quarter of the financial year without Finance Ministry approval; no re-appropriation from savings under Central/Centrally Sponsored Schemes can augment Establishment Expenditure without Finance Ministry approval; and the North-East mandatory 10% earmark is normally not available for re-appropriation to non-North-East items, except where overall ministry ceilings have been reduced at Revised Estimate stage.

6. Reporting to Parliament on Re-Appropriation

A re-appropriation order that increases the budget provision under a line item ending at an Object Head beyond a threshold prescribed by the Budget Division must be reported to Parliament, typically along with the next batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants. This ensures that even executive-level fund movements above a certain scale remain visible to the legislature, preserving the constitutional principle that Parliament, not the Executive alone, controls the public purse.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)