Chapter 11 Bills PDF

CHAPTER XI BILLS Introductory. 1101. Bills Payable, 1102. Registration of Bills, 1104. Accounts Enfacement on Bills, 1106. Abstracts of Bills passed. 1107. Abstract of Allocation, 1108. Statement of unchecked Bills, 1110. Issue of Cheques. 1111. Cheque...

CHAPTER XI BILLS Introductory. 1101. Bills Payable, 1102. Registration of Bills, 1104. Accounts Enfacement on Bills, 1106. Abstracts of Bills passed. 1107. Abstract of Allocation, 1108. Statement of unchecked Bills, 1110. Issue of Cheques. 1111. Cheque Books, 1113. Specimen Signatures, 1115. Writing of Cheques, 1116. Crossing of Cheques, 1118. Receipt of Cheques, 1119. Cancellation of Cheques, 1123. Duplicate Cheques. 1125. Date of Payment by Cheque, Demand Draft, Money Order, Postal Order. 1126. Government Drafts, 1127. Authorization for Payments, 1132. Daily Cash Outgo, 1137. Bills Recoverable, 1138. Bills Recoverable Register. 1139. Review of the Registers of Bills Recoverable, 1140. Realisation of Bills Recoverable, 1141.  CHAPTER XI BILLS 1101. Introductory. – The document through which a claim is preferred is referred to as a ‘Bill’ in this Code. Bills which are payable by the Railway are referred to as ‘Bills Payable’ and those which are recoverable from other parties as ‘Bills Recoverable’. 1102. Bills Payable. – There are bills which are to be settled by actual payment of cash and bills which do not involve any payment or receipt of cash but are only to be adjusted in the accounts. 1103. All bills which are to be settled by payment in cash are to be registered on receipt in the Accounts Office and subjected to the required checks. Thereafter abstracts of the bills are to be prepared based on which cheques are drawn and payment arranged through the Pay Department. This process is further explained in the following paragraphs. 1104. Registration of Bills to be settled by Cash Payment. – All bills which are to be settled by cash payment should be entered in a register of Bills (A. 1104) and should be numbered in consecutive order and the date of receipt should be entered upon them. The number thus allotted to each bill will be referred to as the Accounts Bill Number or briefly as “AB No. or CO-6 No.”. The bills should then be sent to the section concerned for check. After a bill has been checked, the amount for which it has been passed in internal check will be entered in the appropriate column of the Register (A. 1104) provided for the purpose. The register will be so maintained that the particulars of all bills received during each month are shown distinctly. Form A. 1104 1105. Bills received from other Railways and other Ministries of the Central Government or the State Governments which are not payable in cash but are adjusted in accounts (see Chapter IV) should not be entered in the Register of Bills (A. 1104) but should be recorded separately. 1106. Accounts Enfacement on Bills (for Bills to be settled in cash). – All bills entered in the Register of Bills (A. 1104) should be passed on to the sections of the Accounts Office concerned for internal check. On the completion of the internal check (or before detailed check in the case of bills dealt with under the post-check system vide rules in para 813 & 814) every bill should be enfaced showing the amount for which the claim has been admitted by the Accounts Officer, the total amount deducted and the net amount payable The accounts office enfacement on bills should be in Form A. 1106.The head of account to which the total amount of the claim admitted is chargeable and the head of account to which deductions are creditable should be shown on or near the enfacement. Note. - (1) In the case of bills on which payments have to be made through another Accounts Officer (Cf. Paragraph 1132) the words “Not to be included in A. 1107” should be distinctly written above the Enfacement. (2) The Accounts Office enfacement (Form A. 1106) should be signed by the concerned Accounts Officer. When, however, there is only one Accounts Officer attached to an office (e.g., Divisional Accounts Office or Workshop Accounts Office) and the Officer is away from the station on tour or is on leave or absent from office for unavoidable reasons, the enfacement may be signed by the Section Officer (Accounts) attached to the Section of that office. Form A. 1106 1107. Abstracts of Bills Passed. – The bills passed by the Accounts Officer for payment in cash or by cheque should be posted into the Abstract of Bills Passed (A. 1107). The object of this abstract is (i) to reduce to the extent possible the number of cheques to be drawn each day and (ii) to present the various bills passed by an Accounts Officer in a condensed form to the Officer who has to sign the cheques. The entries in the Abstracts of Bills Passed (A. 1107) should be sufficiently full and clear to obviate a reference to the vouchers. The Abstract of Bills Passed will thus give the particulars of each bill, the amounts passed, the amount recoverable and the net amount to be paid. It should show the name of the Bank on which the cheque is to be drawn, details of the payee and the allocation of the charges. The Abstract should be checked with the connected bills and signed by the Accounts Officer. As a safeguard against the inclusion of a bill in more than one Abstract, the enfacement on a bill included in an Abstract should be crossed off by the Accounts Officer signing the Abstract. The Abstract of Bills Passed (A. 1107) should be forwarded to the section preparing cheques. The numbers of the Abstract of Bills Passed (A.1107) should be quoted in all records in which the Abstracts are referred to. The Abstract of each week, fortnight or month should, after their return from the Cashier be bound together and carefully preserved so as to form a record of bills passed for payment. This record should be treated as a subsidiary book to the Daily Abstract of Cash Transactions (A. 304). Note. – The Abstract may be signed by Section Officer (Accounts) in the circumstances in which they are permitted to sign bills, vide para 1106 but all such Abstracts must be countersigned by the Accounts Officer on his return to duty. Form A. 1107  1108. Abstract of Allocation. – The allocation (debits and credits) entered on the Accounts Enfacement (A. 1106) on bills passed for payment should be abstracted in an Abstract of Allocation, Form A. 1108. A separate Abstract of Allocation should be prepared for each Form A. 1107. 1109. The totals of the several Abstracts of allocation (A. 1108) compiled in a day should be consolidated into one Form A. 1109. From this Consolidated Daily Abstract (A. 1109) which should be totalled at the end of the day, the Daily Abstract of Cash Transactions (A. 304) will be posted. The object of the Daily Abstract of Allocation (A. 1109) is to reduce to a minimum the postings in the Daily Abstract of Cash Transaction (A. 304). Form A. 1108/Form A. 1109 ABSTRACT OF ALLOCATION/CONSOLIDATED DAILY ABSTRACT No. of Accounts Bills Form A.1107 Heads of Accounts Total Debits Rs. P Total Debits Credits Total Credits 1110 Statement of Unchecked Bills. – It is essential that all claims against the Railway should be promptly checked and passed for payment. With a view to ensure that no delays occur in checking and passing bills for payment without the knowledge of the Accounts Officer, a Statement (A. 1110) should be prepared from the Register of Bills (A. 1104) on the 11th, 21st and the last day of each month, of bills received upto the 1st, 11th and 21st respectively, but not passed upto the date of the preparation of the statement. A separate statement should be compiled for each section of the office in which the bills have been received for internal check. On these statements (A. 1110) the sections responsible for internal check should offer reasons for the delay in passing the bills and submit them to the Officer-in-charge of these sections for scrutiny and remarks where necessary. They should then be submitted to the Divisional Accounts Officer or to the Deputy Chief Accounts Officer in a centralised Accounts Office. Form A. 1110 STATEMENT OF UNCHECKED BILLS Account By whom Brief Amount Remarks of Accounts Bill No. rendered particulars Rs. P Section concerned Officer’s Remarks  1111 Issue of Cheques: All payments will normally by arranged by the Accounts Officer in cash (through pay office) or by cheques (through Cheque Disbursement cell) in accordance with the detailed rules laid down in Chapter XIX. Cheques are drawn on the Reserve Bank of India, or a Bank functioning as the agent of the Reserve Bank, or a Government Treasury by Accounts Officers authorized in this behalf by the Financial Adviser and Chief Accounts Officer or an Accounts Officer in independent charge of a project. Funds required for payment in cash will be obtained by cheques drawn in favour of the Cashier, while other payment will be made by cheques drawn in favour of the payees/bank disbursing the payment on behalf of railways concerned. Cheques should be prepared in accordance with the details furnished on the Abstract of Bills Passed (A. 1107 third page). The cheques should be classified bank-wise in the Form A.1111, Requisition for cheques, and this form together with the Abstracts …………………… (A. 1107) should be submitted to the Officer authorized to sign cheques. The Officer should satisfy himself that the cheques have been correctly drawn in all respects and should check the correctness of the entries in the Requisition for Cheques (A. 1111) which is used as a voucher for posting the General Cash Book (A. 304). He should cross off the enfacements on the Abstract of Bills (A. 1107) or otherwise cancel them by rubber stamp to ensure that cheques are not prepared more than once for the same Abstracts. The Accounts officer should thereafter segregate the payments into four categories viz a) NEFT b) ECS/NECS c) Third party cheque and d) Cash. The Bills for NEFT/ECS/ NECS and third party cheques shall be dealt by Accounts Officer under Disbursement cell of Books section. Only those bills where the payment in cash is required to be made should be sent to Pay office. Form A. 1111 1112. All cheques should have the name of the Railway printed on the top in bold letters so as to enable the Banks and Treasuries to classify the payments correctly against the account of the Railway concerned. 1113. Cheque Books. – A separate cheque book should be used for each bank, head treasury or sub-treasury and the Accounts Officer should notify to the treasury or the bank upon which he draws, the number of the cheque book which from time to time he brings into use and the number of cheques it contains. Cheque Books must be kept under lock and key in the personal custody of the Accounts Officer, who when relieved, shall take a receipt for the correct number of cheques made over to the relieving officer. The loss of a cheque book or blank cheque form should be notify promptly to the Bank or to the Treasury Officers with whom the Accounts Officer concerned has an authorised drawing account (see para 1115). 1114. An account of the cheque books in stock should be kept in a manuscript register and on each occasion a cheque book is issued or brought into use the manuscript register should be duly posted and got initialed by the Accounts Officer. The number of cheques contained in the Cheque Book should be counted and a certificate recorded on the cover of the Cheque Book.  1115. Supply of Specimen Signatures to Banks and Treasuries. – The specimen signature of all officers who are authorised by the Financial Adviser and Chief Accounts Officer to sign cheques should be supplied to all banks and treasuries with which such officers are in account. When an Officer authorised to sign cheques is relieved of that duty, the fact should be intimated to all such banks and treasuries. (The term treasuries has been defined in para 1905). 1116. Writing of Cheques. – Each cheque should have a cross entry at right angles to the type indicating a sum, a little in excess of that for which they are granted, thus “under thirty rupees” will mean that the cheque is for a sum not less than Rs. 20 but less than Rs. 30 and similarly “under eight hundred rupees” will mean that it is for less than Rs. 800 but not less than Rs. 700. The cross entry is not necessary if the amount in words in the cheque is typed/perforated by a special cheque writing machine. No abbreviations such as “eleven hundred” for one thousand one hundred” should be used. The amount should be written in words as well as in figures. In case the amount involved is in rupees only and there are no paise, the word “only” should be inserted after the number of whole rupees as in the following examples and care should be taken to leave no space for interpolation :- “Rupees twenty-six only” “Rupees twenty-five and paise fifty” Note. – (1) All cheques should be written and signed in indelible ink only. (2) In drawing or cashing a cheque, it should be remembered that a common form of fraud consists in altering the word into four by prefixing an ‘f’ and changing the ‘e’ into an ‘r’, the figure being easily altered to correspond. The word twenty, if written carelessly, has also sometimes been changed into seventy. The drawer of a cheque in which these words occur should, therefore, so write as to make such a fraud impossible. 1117 No erasure or overwriting should be made in a cheque. – If any alteration is necessary, the incorrect entry should be cancelled neatly in red ink and the correct entry inserted. Each such alteration should be attested by the Accounts Officer under his dated signature. 1118 Crossing of Cheques. – (a) Cheques drawn in favour of Government officers and departments in settlement of Government dues should always be crossed ‘A/c payee only-not negotiable.” (b) In the absence of a specific request to the contrary from the payee cheques drawn in favour of corporate bodies, firms or private persons should always be crossed. Subject to any instructions received from the payee, a cheque should be crossed “………………………………… & Co.” with the addition of the words “Not negotiable” between the crossing. Were the payee is believed to have a banking account, further precautions should be adopted, where possible, by crossing the cheque “specially” (instead of by the “general” crossing ………..………. & Co.”) by quoting the name of the bank through which the payee will receive payment and by adding the words “A/c payee only Not negotiable”. These instructions regarding the method of crossing of cheques are applicable in all cases where the use of crossed cheques is prescribed. (c) The instructions in this para graph apply mutates mutandis to Indian Postal Orders issued for remittance of money on Government account. 1119. Cheques received in settlement of Railway dues. – When an Accounts Officer receives a cheque and sends it to a Bank not for cash payment, but for credit of its amount in the Bank accounts he must before endorsing the same, add the words “Received payment by transfer credit to ………………” Omission to do this facilitates fraudulent appropriation of money. 1120. Ordinarily a cheque payable to order is not cashed by the Bank unless it is receipted by the payee himself or other person in whose favour it is regularly endorsed for payment. In special cases, when the head of an office is unable himself to receive the cheques payable to his orders, owing to his being absent on tour or for other causes and when he considers that strict compliance with the ordinary rule would cause inconvenience, he may specially authorise in writing an Office subordinate to him to endorse for him cheques drawn in his favour by his official designation. 1121. Every cheque in favour of a Government Officer must be made payable to ‘order’ only; but when the payee is not in Government employ, the drawer may at the specific request in writing of the payee, make the cheque payable to ‘bearer’. 1. 1122: All cheques issued by the Accounts Office should be sent to the Cheque Disbursement cell (in books section) along with the connected bills, Abstracts of bills (A. 1107) and Requisition for cheques (A. 1111) for arranging, payment. Before passing on the bills to the Cashier for arranging payment, columns 8 to 10 of the Bills Register (A. 1104) should be posted. After making the necessary entries in the Cash Book (A. 1941) the Cashier will return the Abstracts of Bills and Requisition for Cheques to the Accounts Office for record. 1122 a) Accounts office (Cheque Disbursement Cell) should generate Cheque Abstract and cheques for arranging payment through NEFT/ECS/Third party cheques/Cash based on CO-7s confirmed by concerned Bill passing sections. Cheque cell should send Cheque Abstract Report of the day indicating Cheque numbers and Cheque Abstract wise Total amount payable for the day along with all the cheques and connected Bills, CO-7s duly stamped as “Cheque issued” and Cheque Abstracts to Cheque Disbursement Cell along with the NEFT cheques for onward submission to RBI/SBI for arranging payment in Beneficiary’s Account. Cheque cell should maintain records for Cheque Abstracts received from Disbursement cell duly acknowledged and will also maintain section wise details for Net amount payable as per Disbursement Cash Book and Disbursement Report of a Day received from Disbursement cell for verification by Bill passing sections. 1122 b) Accounts Office (Disbursement Cell) should generate Disbursement Cell Number (DCN) for each Co-6 Bill through system and make manual Entry of Disbursement Number, Date and amount on each bill with Red Ink. Cheque Disbursement cell should also generate Disbursement Cash Book and Disbursement Report of a Day from system listing out the Disbursement Cell Number given to each bill, section code and Name, Co-6 No., Amount of each Bill, Co-7 No. and Total amount of payment disbursed in a Day and reconcile the Total Amount disbursed as per Disbursement Report of the day with the Cheque Abstract Report of the Day and Cheques & Bills figures accounted for in the Receipt & Payment of the Day. Cheque Disbursement cell should disburse the NEFT/ECS/NECS cheques along with encrypted file to Bank and Third party cheques through Postal agency. Cashier’s Cheques for cash payments should be sent to Pay office for arranging Cash Payments. Cheque Disbursement cell should maintain the Register to record of number of cheques disbursed in a Day and reconcile with the Cheque Abstract Report of the Day received from Cheque cell. Disbursement cell should directly send the Disbursement Report of a Day in duplicate along with NEFT/ECS/Third party cheques connected Bills, Co-7 to Post Audit Cell. Post Audit cell should return one copy duly acknowledged to Cheque Disbursement cell. Cheque Disbursement cell should send Disbursement Cash Book in duplicate along with Cheque abstracts to Cheque cell. Cheque cell should return one copy duly acknowledged to Cheque Disbursement Cell. For arranging Cash Payments by Pay office, Cheque Disbursement cell should send Cashier’s Cheques along with the connected Bills and the Cashier’s Cheque Disbursement Report (generated from system) in duplicate to Pay Office. Cashier’s Cheque Disbursement Report of the Day should list out the details of cheque number, cheque date, amount, Disbursement cell Number given to each bill, section code & Name of the section, Co-6, No., Amount of each bill, Co-7 No., name of beneficiary to pay office. The data sent to Bank along with cheques for arranging payment to Beneficiary's Account should be reconciled with the data received from RBI/designated bank giving status of each Transaction. Cheque Disbursement cell should indicate Returned Transactions based on Bank transaction report received from cheque cell section responsible for issuing cheques fortnightly in the Disbursement Cash Book of the Month and send to Post Audit cell. 1122 c) Disbursement of Cash Payments through Pay Office - Pay office should acknowledge receipt of Cashier's Cheque Disbursement Report of the day and connected bills, and return one copy of Cheque Disbursement Report of the Day to Cheque Disbursement cell of Accounts office. For Accountal of Bills in Pay office, generation of relevant documents and accordance of Acquittance for cash payments, procedure as per para 1945 A to para 1963-A should be followed. 1122 d) Accounts office Post Audit cell should maintain records of Disbursement Report of a Day and NEFT/ ECS/ Third party cheques connected Bills, Co-7s received from Cheque Disbursement cell daily and Paid /Unpaid Bills received from Pay office after stipulated period of one month. Post Audit cell should reconcile the receipt of Bills from Cheque Disbursement cell and Pay office with the Disbursement Report of the Day/ month received from Cheque Disbursement cell. Post Audit cell should distribute Bills received from Cheque Disbursement cell and Pay office to the concerned Bill Passing section for accordance of Final Acquittance Certificate to Post Audit cell of Books section for these Bills. Post Audit cell should accord Final Acquittance Certificate to Pay Office for Cash payments. 1122 e) Bill Passing sections - should exercise check of Paid vouchers / Bills as per para 817- A & 818 – A and accord Final Acquittance Certificate to Cheque Disbursement cell. 1123. Cancellation of Cheques. – Cheques are ordinarily valid for a period of three months after the month of issue; thus a cheque bearing any date in January is payable upto 30th April. Should the currency of a cheque expire owing to its not being presented within three months after the month of its issue, it may be returned to the drawer who will destroy it himself and draw a new cheque in lieu thereof. The fact of the destruction and the number and the number and date of the new cheque should be recorded on the counterfoil of the old cheque, and the number and date of the old cheque that is destroyed should be recorded on the counterfoil of the new one. The fact of the new cheque having been issued should be entered on the date of issue in red ink parenthetically in the cash book, but not in the column for payment. A note should also be made against the original entry in the cash book. 1124. When it necessary to cancel a cheque, the cancelment should be recorded on the counterfoil, and the cheque, if in the drawer’s possession, should be destroyed. If not in his possession, he should promptly request the Bank to stop payment of the cheque and on ascertaining that payment has been stopped, he should write back the entry in his cash book by exhibiting the amount of the cheque on the receipt side as “Refunds of Expenditure”. A counter-reference must be given in the cash book, against the original, to the second entry of the cheque. When the amount is thus adjusted, it will be deducted from the amount credited to the head, “Cheques and Bills” for cheques of railway department officers. 1125. Duplicate Cheques. – On receipt of a request for a fresh cheque in lieu of a cheque reported to have been lost, the drawing officer should send an intimation by Registered Post Acknowledgement Due to the Bank regarding the alleged loss of the cheque and advise it to stop payment if the same cheque is presented thereafter. A written confirmation about the Bank having recorded the ‘Stop Order’ should also be obtained from it. However, in cases where the currency of the cheque alleged to have been lost has already expired at the when the request for recording the ‘Stop Order’ by the Bank is made, no acknowledgement of the ‘Stop Order’ by the Bank other than a postal acknowledgement due, is necessary. The party requesting for a fresh-cheque in lieu of a lost one should execute an Indemnity Bond in Form (A. 1125). However, in the case of a Government Department or a Bank, the execution of the Indemnity Bond is not necessary but a fresh cheque should be issued in its favour only on receipt of a certificate stating that it has not received the cheque alleged to have been lost or having received it, it has been lost and that it will be returned to the drawer if found later. On completion of the above enquiries the Accounts Office, may issue a fresh cheque in lieu of the lost one after verifying it from the list of cheques paid received from the Banks in terms of para 432. As a measure of additional precaution, particulars of Railway cheques relating to such of the debit scrolls as have been wrongly sent by the Reserve Bank to a Railway and have not been withdrawn in the same month’s account should be advised by that Railway to the issuing Railway which should keep a note of such cheques in the details of balance under ‘Cheques and Bills’ and this list should also be consulted before issuing any duplicate cheque. Form A. 1125 1126. Date of payment by Cheque. Demand Draft, Money Order or Postal Order etc. – If a payment is made by cheque and the cheque is honoured or presentation the payment shall be deemed to be made on the date the cheque is handed over to the payee or the person authorised to give a legal acquittance on his behalf. If the payment is not made in person but by post, the payment shall be deemed to be made on the date of despatch of cheque, money order or postal order etc., if payment by post is made at the request of the payee, otherwise on the date the cheque, money order or postal order etc. is received by the payee.  Provided that where a cheque is marked as not payable before a certain date, the payment shall not be deemed to have been made until the date on which it becomes payable. GOVERNMENT DRAFTS 1127 Government Drafts at par will be issued for remittance on behalf of the Railways and for other quasi public purposes set forth in paragraph 1130 below under the terms and conditions hereinafter specified. Government drafts will be issued for a minimum amount of Rs. 50. 1128. Two forms of Government drafts will be issued :- (i) Reserve Bank of India Government Drafts. – To be drawn by or on places, where the Reserve Bank is represented by its Treasury Agencies/nationalized Banks, and drafts to be drawn by the Reserve Bank on its own offices and branches of the State Bank of India/ nationalized banks; and (ii) State Bank of India Government Drafts. – To be drawn by the State Bank of India on its own offices and branches. In either case, the drafts will be superscribed “on Government account only”. 1129 The officer requiring the draft shall tender with the money a formal application in , which may be obtained from the bank. He shall certify on the application that the draft is wanted for bona fide public purpose and described the object of the remittance. 1130 (1) The issue of Government drafts at par is authorised in the following types of cases:– (a) all cases where payment have to be made by bank drafts either under the provisions of any law, or other legal or contractual obligations; (b) Payment towards pay and allowances and other personal entitlements of outstation establishments, and contingencies etc., relating to outstation offices where it is not possible to resort to the procedure prescribed under the provisions of the following paras 1132 to 1136. (Bank drafts required in favour of disbursing officers of outstation offices to enable them to make disbursements of pay and allowances and other personal entitlements of staff, office contingencies etc., in cash in exceptional circumstances will be drawn in favour of the Disbursing Officer by designation and bear the superscription ‘not transferable’ and the work “ONLY” should be added after the designation of the payee.  (c) Public Sector Undertakings and Corporations (other than local bodies) set up by Government should open bank accounts at the station where the Pay and Accounts Office concerned is located in order to facilitate payments to them by crossed, negotiable cheques only. Wherever this is not possible, payments may be arranged by crossed demand draft(s); (d) Payments to semi-Government / private institutions /private companies/individual etc., not covered under (a) to (c) above and located at outstations by crossed bank drafts. 1131. A draft on Government account is not transferable and is only payable to: - (a) the payee or his lawful agent on identification; or (b) the payee’s banker who should certify that the amount has been placed to the payee’s credit; or (c) a person holding a letter of authority from the payee, whose signature must be known to the Bank, and if the letter directs the Bank to pay the money to a certain named person, that person must be identified to the Bank before payment can be made to him. Before presentation for encashment, the draft must be receipted on the back by a person entitled to give a legal acquittance. AUTHORISATION FOR PAYMENTS 1132 An Accounts officer may, if necessary or expedient arrange to discharge a bill or liability which has been duly checked in the Accounts Office through another Accounts Officer. In such a case, an authority for payment should be issued in favour of the Account Officer who is required to arrange the payment. Note: However, in case where payee requests for crediting of payments due to him in his bank account, the accounts officer shall arrange to credit the amount payable to the bank account of the payee directly. This will take effect from 1.12.07 (Authority: Railway Board's letter no.2004/AC-II/21/15 dated 12.11. 2007)—acs no.28 1133 The above authority for payment may be issued in the form of a letter, telegram, or enfacement on vouchers, and it should be signed by an officer who has been duly empowered by the head of the office in this respect. 1134 The authority for payment issued to another Accounts Officer should be sealed with a special seal except when such authority is issued telegraphically (the confirmation copy of the telegram should be duly sealed (Also see para 1136). The special seal should remain in the custody of the officer authorised to sign the payment authorities. Specimen impressions of the seal and also specimen signatures of the officers authorised to sign the payment authorities should be furnished to all other Accounts Officers, who should also be advised of any change in the seal or of officers as and when they occur. Note. – The Specimen of signature of Officers and of the seal when forwarded on a sheet of paper other than the forwarding letter itself, should be attested by the Officer signing the forwarding letter. 1135 The arrangement prescribed in the above paragraph should be observed not only between Railway Accounts Offices but also with Offices of the Accountants General (Civil) and Post & Telegraph, etc. These, arrangement do not, however, apply to transactions with the Defence Accounts Department. 1136 Before arranging payment on the basis of authority for payments received from another Accounts Officer, the Section Officer (Accounts) should satisfy himself by comparison with the specimen signature on record that the signature on it is genuine. In the case of payment authority received by telegram, payment should not be authorised until the post copy of the telegram is received. In case of special urgency, it should be specially brought to the notice of the Accounts officer for orders. 1137 Daily Cash Outgo. – For the purpose of maintaining a concurrent record of the cash outgo, the net amount of bills passed for payment and entered in the Abstract of Bills (A.1107) should be posted daily in a manuscript register Form A. 1137 classified by subheads of Demands. The running totals of the Cash Outgo by sub-heads of Demands should be intimated by the Accounts Officer to the Financial Adviser and Chief Accounts Officer daily or weekly as may be prescribed. Form A. 1137 Date ………………………… Form A. 1107 No. Net amount Allocation by sub-heads of Demands Total payable for Grants Total for the day BILLS RECOVERABLE 1138 Bill Form. – All dues of the Railway should, as a rule, be realized by issue of Bills in Form A. 1138.  Form A. 1138/E. 1463 BILL FOR To ……………………………….. Name of the party Dear Sir, Subject.…………………………………………………………………… Reference. – Agreement dated ……………………………………… The following amount has become due to be paid to the Railway: - Particular of the claims Amount Previous dues if any Total shown in column 4 by cash/cheque/Bank draft to the Chief Cashier/Divisional Cashier …………………………… on or before ……….. under advice to this office failing which interest @ …….% will be charged on the outstanding balance. The amount is creditable to the Head of Account ……………………………….. Please acknowledge receipt. Yours faithfully, Errors & Omissions Excepted Excepted Accounts Officer ………………... Designation ……………………… Copy forwarded to ………………..….. (Executive Officer) for information and necessary action. 1139. Bills Recoverable Register. – All dues recoverable from the parties on account of service rendered, material supplied or for any other purpose should be entered in the Register of Bills Recoverable (A. 1139). A separate page should be set apart for each party and the opening entries should be made from the agreement, Register of Works etc. under the initials of the Accounts officer. The bills should be accurately prepared, issued regularly in time and numbered in consecutive order. As the bills are realized, suitable remarks in the appropriate columns of the register should be recorded. At the close of the year, the outstanding balance of amounts due from each party should be carried forward into the new register. Any change in respect of the terms and conditions of the claim should be made in the register under the initials of the Accounts Officer. Form A. 1139/E. 1464 REGISTER OF BILLS RECOVERABLE 1. Name of the party …………………………………………………………. 2. Particulars of the charges …………………………………………………..  3. Reference to Agreement etc. …………………………………………………… 4. Amount Recoverable …………………………………………………………… 5. Period viz. Monthly, Quarterly, Half-yearly, Annually ……………………… 6. Due date of payment …………………………………………………………. 7. Accounts Officer (Initials) …………………………………………………… No. and Amount Period Date of Particulars of Outstanding Remarks date of bill realisation remittance dues 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1140. Review. – The Bills Recoverable Register should be reviewed monthly with a view to see that the bills have been correctly issued to all parties in time and necessary action is taken towards the realisation of the outstanding bills. At the close of the month, a summary of the outstanding bills should be prepared and put up to the Accounts Officer for review. 1141. Realisation of Bills Recoverable. – It will be the duty of Accounts Officer to see that the bills for services rendered, supplies made or for any purpose are correctly made out and promptly issued to the parties concerned. There should be no delay in preparing bills on mutually accepted basis or as per agreement. The due date of payment, mode of remittance and the penalty for delayed payment should be indicated on the bill. The realisation of the bills should be vigorously pursued with the parties and cases of delay in payment should be promptly brought to the notice of the executive officer concerned for expeditious action to recover the outstanding dues or to discontinue the service rendered to the party or such action as may be deemed necessary. The executive officers are responsible for rendering all possible assistance in securing promptly realisation of sums due to the railway. High value, old and disputed bills should be specially followed up through personal contact in order to avoid accumulation of the outstanding dues and possible loss due to waiver of the irrecoverable dues. The Accounts Officer should advise the Executive Head of the Office the position of the outstanding bills every month and also report the position every quarter to the Financial Adviser and Chief Accounts Officer. *****