Government funding for non-government organisations (NGOs) and autonomous bodies has been halted across the board by the finance ministry for the first time. Citing austerity measures the government has asked all ministries to stop grants to these bodies unless they can show how they have spent past funds.Auditor report shows the Central government every year gives out about 79 per cent of its total plan expenditure as grants in aid. Most of these pass through as support to NGOs. A Planning Commission survey puts the number of NGOs at 5,31,000 but there is no accurate list of those which are active.The government instruction will impact programmes in especially the social sector as the delivery mechanism largely depends on them. The move will have huge ramifications for these agencies as they run on the grants received from Central government ministries for implementing state-sponsored schemes, programmes and projects.A finance Ministry circular has said that grants-in-aid should not be released to any autonomous body or NGO or any other organisation/institution (other than state governments) if it has not submitted all Utilisation Certificates due to rendition.