Modi government plans to track the status of Budget announcements

28 Jun 2022 , 09:49 AM

According to information obtained by News18, PM Narendra Modi’s administration has launched a significant pan-government initiative to determine the precise state of each budget announcement’s execution over the course of the last few fiscal years in order to properly monitor their development.

The Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), which is part of the Ministry of Finance, stated in a letter sent to all ministries earlier this month that while budget announcements should be implemented within the same fiscal year, it has been noted that some of them take longer, necessitating closer monitoring.

All budget announcements from 2014—15 onwards will be taken into consideration, according to sources in the administration. The DEA has six categories for all budget announcements across ministries as part of the exercise.

They include those for which no action has been taken because of unavoidable circumstances, those for which action has been taken but is still in the planning or approval stages, and those for which action has already been taken but has been abandoned owing to altered circumstances.

Other kinds of announcements include those that require monitoring due to difficulties with inter-ministerial or other coordination concerns, have been mostly executed, or where the announcement’s objectives have been largely met. All budgetary pronouncements that have been transformed into projects or plans, or combined with them, fall under the implemented category.

The letter, which News18 was able to read, requested information about upcoming budget releases from each ministry and agency in a predetermined manner broken down into six categories. For additional monitoring, it has also asked for a monthly assessment of the announcements and a status report on upcoming budget announcements by the 25th of each month.