The austerity measures announced on Tuesday asked profit-making public sector undertakings (PSUs) to consider giving bonus shares to the government to help the latter to shore up its finances.

The measures are expected to bridge the resource gap and the government's commitment to adhere to fiscal consolidation stipulated by Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, finance ministry officials said.

According to the officials, direct tax collection has shown buoyancy but indirect tax mop-up is yet to show significant improvement while corporate tax target remains tough.

Under the austerity measures, a mandatory ten percent cut has been imposed on the budgetary allocation for non-plan, non-salary expenditure including overtime allowance.

The government also announced to undertake a complete review and evaluation of all ongoing programmes and schemes, both plan and non-plan, by the end of December this year to assess their continued relevance.

No deviation of expenditure would be allowed from the prescribed budgetary ceiling and the austerity measures will be carried into budget-formulation with greater emphasis on explicit recognition of revenue constraints and a realistic projection of budgetary allocation for various projects and schemes.