Government inccurs a liability to repay the moneys received or has
a claim to recover the amounts paid, together with repayments of the
former ('Debt' and 'Deposits') and the recoveries of the latter
(Advances').The transactions relating to `Remittances' in this
Part account for remittance of cash between treasuries and
currency chests, transfers between different accounting cirlces,
etc. The initial debits or credits to these heads are cleared
eventually by corresponding receipts or payments either within
the same circle of account or in another account circle. The
transactions pending adjustment on final booking in accounts
are recorded under Suspense heads.
2. Sectors and Heads of Accounts
Within each of the sections in Part I mentioned above, the
transactions are accounted for, grouped into sectors. They are
`Tax Revenue,' Non-Tax Revenue' and `Grants in-aid and
Contributions' for the receipt heads (revenue account), and
`General Services' `Social Services', `Economic Services' and
`Grants-in-aid and Contributions' for expenditure heads. Specific
functions or services are grouped in a sector for expenditure
heads (such as Education, Sports, Art and Culture; Health and
Family Welfare; Water Supply, Sanitation, Housing and Urban
Development under Social Services). In Part III (Public Account)
also, the transactions are grouped into sectors, such as Small
Savings, Provident Funds, Reserve Funds etc. These Sectors
are sub-divided into major heads of account. In some cases,
the Sectors are, in addition, sub-divided into sub-sectors before
their division into major heads of account.
The major heads are divided into minor heads, each of
which has a number of subordinate heads, generally known as
sub-heads. The sub-heads are further divided into detailed
heads. Under each of these heads, the expenditure is shown
distributed between charged and voted. Sometimes major heads
are also divided into sub-major heads before their further
division into minor heads. Apart from the Sectoral and sub-
Sectoral classification, the Major Heads, Sub-Major Heads,
Minor Heads, Sub-Heads, Detailed Heads and Object Heads
together constitute a six-tier arrangement within the
classification structure of Government Accounts. The major,
minor and sub-heads prescribed for the detailed classification
of expenditure in the general accounts are not necessarily
identical with the description of sub-heads and other units of
allotments in the grants which are adopted by Governments in
the Demands for grants, presented to Parliament. But in general
a good degree of correlation is maintained between the demands
for Grants and the Finance Accounts, by suitable cross
referencing in the budget documents.
The major heads of account, falling within the sectors for
expenditure heads, generally correspond to functions of
Government, while the minor heads, subordinate to them,
identify the programmes undertaken to achieve the objectives
of the function represented by the major head. The sub-head
represents schemes, the detailed head, Sub-Scheme and object
head, the object level of classification.