STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Minister for Finance, Labour and Employment and Culture, Dr Haseeb A Drabu on Wednesday stressed the need for effective financial management to ensure productive use of resources.
This was stated by the Finance Minister during a meeting convened with administrative Secretaries here to discuss the thrust areas and policy framework for the Budget 2017-18.
Calling for evolving expenditure policies of the respective departments regardless of the resources required, Finance Minister emphasized quality of expenditure over the quantum of resources and insisted this is the only way to ensure that the surging transaction costs on governance are used to affect productive changes.
“The budget should not be about numbers but it must outline the fiscal policy and development strategy of the government and must be directed towards policy outcomes on government priorities including public expenditure,” he said.
“Expenditure efficiency must define the outcome of expenditure and for this we can attempt zero budgeting than incremental budgeting, which is in vogue,” he added.
He said availability of resources comes only next to the quality of expenditure.
“We may have lot of resources but more important is how we are spending and for what?” Dr Drabu said and called for “institutional audit and social audit going side by side.” Stressing on increasing the efficiency of resources, the finance minister said that after spending the money, the State should be able to verify the outcome in terms of assets created on the ground.
Emphasizing importance of management of assets that state government is creating, Drabu said maintaining the assets “almost equals creation of assets and every department should keep part of the budget aside for maintenance of assets.”
The minister stressed the need for fine-tuning the expenditure management and monitoring system to ensure that unwarranted fiscal liabilities are not created.
“There is a need to put in place checks and balances mechanism in the Government Departments to avoid creation of liabilities,” he said.
To meet the contingency on account of non-release of funds for Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) by the Government of India, some contingency funds across all the sectors should be put in place, he said and added that no capital expenditure for 2107-18 shall be entertained without proper DPRs. It was informed in the meeting that due to implementation of GST Bill from 2017-18, there will be some check on expenditure and exemptions can be possible only with the approval of GST Council.
