CONSUMER WELFARE FUND

A "Consumer Welfare Fund" was established in the Public Accounts of India in January 1992 by Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance.

After having some accounting problems in the initial stages which were taken up by this organization. ion with the Budget Division, the procedure of crediting the amount under CWF was revised in October 1996, as under:

(i) The authorities under the Central Excise and the Customs Act, who are authorised to make refund of duties in respect of the amounts referred to in para 1 will not draw cheque/demand draft for the purpose but will issue a sanction in respect of the amount falling due for refunds to the Pay and Accounts Officer of the Commissionerate, designated for the purpose. The PAO will collect the sanction received by him in a month and draw a consolidated cheque /draft in favour of PAO, O/o the Pr.CCA CBEC, New Delhi, who deposits cheques received from the field PAOs in the Bank and issues a consolidated cheque in favour of PAO, Ministry of Civil Supplies and Public Distribution at the end of every quarter. This could also take care of the refund, if any, ordered to be paid by the Appellate Authority which can be adjusted against the amount with the Head Quarter and only a net amount cheque issued to the PAO, Ministry of Civil Supplies.

(ii) On receipt of the Cheque/drafts the Controller of Accounts(Civil Supplies) will put through necessary adjustments crediting the amounts to the CWF under major head "8229 - Development and Welfare Funds". The Controller of Accounts (Civil Supplies) reports monthly, for monitoring purposes, to the Department of Revenue, the actual expenditure incurred on the intended purposes by the Ministry.

The expenditure to be met out of the Fund, as cleared by the Committee constituted for the purpose and finally approved for inclusion in the Budget, will be provided under the relevant functional major head, in the Demand for Grants of the Ministry of Civil Supplies & Public Distribution. The Statement of Budget Estimates in respect of these items of expenditure (with recoveries from the CWF) will be furnished to Budget Division by the Ministry of Civil Supplies & Public Distribution in a consolidated form as required, alongwith other expenditure estimates of the Ministry. Before authorising the expenditure against the Budget provision made, the Ministry of Civil Supplies & Public Distribution will invariably ensure that there is adequate credit balance in the CWF for covering the expenditure.

An amount of Rs. 5.96 crores was credited under Consumer Welfare Fund during the year 2002-2003 by this office.