Thiruvananthapuram: The Finance Department has issued strict instructions to all government departments and institutions to transfer their money in bank accounts to the state treasury by March 20.

The officials who fail to implement the order will be levied interest for the amounts, it warned. The new measure is initiated in the wake of the State Government facing an acute financial crisis.

The money that various government departments, grant-in-aid institutions, boards, and self-financing institutions had drawn from the treasury, and kept in banks for various expenses and for advance is to be returned. The money has to be remitted to the treasury account from where it had been drawn.

The departments and institutions retain money in banks for the next financial year in case they fail to spend it this year. However, the Financial Department has cited that this practice violates the Financial Code of Kerala.

The money received from the Government should be spent in the same year itself. The Finance Department made it clear that otherwise, it should be regularized by returning the sum to the Government. With just a month left for the current financial year to get over, the State Government is struggling without funds for planned project expenses.