(1) The amount credited to the General Fund under section 74 shall be applied by the Board in payment of the 54 following charges, namely:—
(a) liabilities against loans that may have been raised or obtained by the Board and payment to the sinking fund established for such loan;
(b) Salaries, fees, remunerations, allowances, pensions, gratuities, compassionate allowances or other moneys due to the Chairperson and other members of the Board, the employees of the Board and the surviving relatives, if any, of such employees;
(c) contributions, if any, payable to the Central or State Government on account of pension and leave allowance of any officer lent to the Board by such State Government;
(d) the cost and expenses, if any, incurred by the Board in the conduct and administration of any provident fund, welfare fund, loan or special fund established by the Board;
(e) the contributions, if any, duly authorised to be made, by regulations made under this Act, to any such fund referred to in clause (d);
(f) contribution payable by the Board towards the expenses in connection with the watch and ward functions of the Police Force or the Central Industrial Security Force or any other Force established and maintained for the protection of the port and the docks, warehouses and other property of the Board;
(g) the cost of repairs and maintenance of the property belonging to, or vested in, the Board and all charges upon the same, and all working expenses;
(h) the cost of the execution and provision of any new work or appliance specified in section 25 which the Board may determine to charge to revenue;
(i) any expenditure incurred towards works and services undertaken under section 26;
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(j) any other expenditure which may be incurred by the Board generally for the purposes of this Act; and
(k) any other charge which may on the application of the Board or otherwise be specially sanctioned by the State Government or for which the Board may be legally liable.
(2) All monies standing at the credit of the Board which cannot immediately be applied in the manner or for the purposes specified in sub-section (1), shall be deposited in a nationalized bank, or be invested in such public securities as may be determined by the Board to be held in trust for the purposes of this Act.
Power to transfer moneys from general account to specified particular account and vice versa.
76. The Board may, with the prior approval of the State Government, apply any sum out of the monies in the General Fund of the Board towards meeting deficits, if any, in the particular or specified accounts such as pilotage account, if so maintained, or transfer the whole or part of any surplus funds in such particular accounts to the General Fund of the Board.
Establishment of Reserve Funds.
77. The Board may, from time to time, set apart such sums out of its surplus income as it thinks fit as a reserve fund or funds for the purpose of expanding existing facilities or creating new facilities at the ports or for the purpose of providing against any decrease in revenue or increase in expenditure arising from transient causes or for purposes of replacement or for meeting expenditure arising from loss or damage from fire, cyclones, shipwrecks or other accident or for any other emergency arising in the ordinary conduct of works under this Act.
Power to reserve Board’s securities on Board’s own investments.
78.(1) For the purposes of any investment which the Board is authorised to make under this Act, it shall be lawful for the Board to reserve and set apart any securities to be issued by it on account of any loan to which the consent of the State Government has been given:
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Provided that the intention to so reserve and set apart such securities has been notified as a condition to the issue of the loan.
(2) The issue by the Board of such securities direct to and in the name of the Board shall not operate to extinguish or cancel such securities, but every security so issued shall be valid in all respects as if issued to, and in the name of, any other person.
(3) The purchase by the Board or the transfer, assignment or endorsement to the Board of any security issued by the Board, shall not operate to extinguish or cancel any such security but the same shall be valid and negotiable in the same manner and to the same extent as if held by or transferred or assigned or endorsed to any other person.
Prior approval of the State Government necessary to charge expenditure to capital account.
79. Except within such limit as may be specified and subject to such conditions as may be prescribed by the State Government in the rules, the Board shall not charge any expenditure to capital account without the prior approval of the State Government.
Works requiring sanction of the Board or the State Government.
80. No new work or appliance, the estimated cost of which exceeds such amount as may be fixed by the State Government in this behalf, shall be commenced or provided by the Board nor shall any contract be entered into by the Board in respect of any such new work or appliance until a plan and an estimate for such work or appliance has been submitted to and approved by the Board:
Provided that no separate approval of the State Government will be necessary in case where the actual expenditure exceeds the approved estimate by not more than ten percentum.
Power of the Chief Executive Officer regarding execution of works.
81. The Chief Executive Officer may direct the execution of any work, the cost of which does not exceed such maximum limit as may be prescribed by the State 57 Government and may enter into contract for the execution of such works but in every such case the Chief Executive Officer shall, as soon as possible, report to the Board of such direction given or contract entered into by him.
Power of the Board to compound or compromise claims.
82. Subject to the limits and the conditions as may be prescribed by the State Government, the Board may compound or compromise any claim or demand or any action or suit instituted by or against it for such sum of money or other compensation as it deems sufficient:
Provided that in all other cases the Board may compound or compromise with prior approval of the State Government.
Writing off of losses.
83. Subject to such conditions as may be prescribed by the State Government, where the Board is of the opinion that any amount due or any loss, whether of money or of property, incurred by the Board is irrecoverable, the Board may sanction the writing-off of the said amount or loss:
Provided that where the amount due for any loss exceeds the limits prescribed, the Board shall require prior approval of the State Government to sanction such irrecoverable amount or loss.
Powers of the Board as Conservator.
84. All the powers, authorities vested in and restrictions imposed on the Board by this Act, shall apply mutatis mutandis to the works which may be executed by the Board as Conservator of the port or as the body appointed under sub-section (1) of Section 36 of the Indian Ports Act and also to the sanction of such works, the estimate therefor and the expenditure there-under.
Budget estimates.