The monitoring is being done by Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha himself and Comptroller General of Civil Accounts in all ministries has been authorised to carry out this task on a weekly basis, official sources said.

Non-Plan expenditure was more or less on target in the first half of this financial year, the sources said adding that though some ministries have overshot the targets, others have offset them by effecting stringent cuts in expenditure.

The sources, however, did not give the figures saying they are still being compiled ministry-wise. Government is also monitoring expenditure in projects to check time and cost overruns and any project above Rs 100 crore investment is being directly monitored by prime minister's office.

The maximum leakages in expenditure is feared in social sector for which annual allocationis around Rs 30,000 crore. The expenditure department has already decided to scrutinise some of the social sector projects to find out if the money was being spent properly, they said.