OUR BUDGETS HAVE PRIORITISED TRANSPARENCY, UPA HID DEFICITS VIA OFF-BUDGET BORROWING: SITHARAMAN

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman highlighted major reforms in India’s Union Budget process, emphasizing increased transparency, efficiency, and fiscal discipline under PM Modi’s vision

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Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday highlighted reforms in India’s Union Budget making process which have ushered in substantial improvement in the sanctity and credibility of the Union Budget by leaving past constraints and archaic practices and reshaping the Budget from a mere record of expenditures into a strategic blueprint for equitable development, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of transparency, efficiency and effectiveness in governance.

Sitharaman asserted the BJP Government’s focus on fiscal prudence, transparency, inclusiveness, ensuring investments in social development and infrastructure in the Budgetary exercises and the execution of the Budget with judicious and efficient use of every rupee collected from taxpayers to ensure a transparent picture of public finances. Listing out the various historic decisions and reforms taken by the Government in power to strengthen and bring transparency to the Budgetary process and practices, Sitharaman drew attention to the advancement of the Budget cycle which saw the Budget presentation being shifted to 1 February -- since FY 2017-18 -- instead of the last working day in February. This effectively advanced the expenditure cycle by two months. Prior to this reform, the authorisation from Parliament through ‘vote-on-account’ was available only for the first 2 months of financial year.