Outcome Budget to boost accountability: Finance minister Thomas Isaac
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Union and state budget speeches are generally made fun of by paraphrasing a popular two-wheeler ad: “Read it, shut it, forget it.” Finance minister T.M. Thomas Isaac, however, wants his Budgets to be made accountable. The Finance Department will introduce medium-term planning and budgeting analysis (MTBPA) during 2017-18 fiscal. MTBPA is a tool for the government to foresee and analyse the fiscal commitment for a committed project for a particular financial year.
More importantly, the process will allow the department to put an ‘Outcome Budget’ for 2017-18 when Isaac presents his next Budget. “In a way it can be said that the finance minister, by initiating the process, has made himself walk his own talk,” a top Department official said. MTBPA allows the department to assess the total fiscal commitment for the planned expenditure, so that sufficient funds can be reserved for that financial year to meet the expenditure. “It will help a qualitative follow up of the implementation of the new projects and would also help the government to ensure fund flow to the state specific projects,” the official said.
MTBPA adds on to measures already taken by the Finance Department to ensure Budget accountability. Recently, the state had launched a complete solution for effective and efficient monitoring and control of state finances called Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS). It integrates the State Budget and Budget execution cycle, helps monitor governments cash position, captures on line real-time transaction details, and ensures automated consolidation of accounts. “With the full rolling out of IFMS, it will help government in more effective fiscal management,” the official said.
But for any fund flow to start and project outcomes plotted, the Budget process has to be completed on time. “This time, the entire legislative business will be completed by the middle of May, rather than August, so that local bodies can send in their project proposals by the first week of June,” a source close to the FM said. Next time, the plan is to present the Budget in February and complete the legislative business by March so that work on the Budget could start from April 1.
