Good Governance in Public Finance – India’s initiative
The Finance Minister P. Chidambaram highlighted his government’s initiatives to ensure good governance in public finance. He was intervening in the discussions on the key issues of good governance in public finance at the Breakfast Meeting during the Meeting of G-8 Finance Ministers, being held at St. Petersburg.
The Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act oblige the Central Government to wipe out the revenue deficit by 2008-09 and limit the fiscal deficit to 3% by 2008-09.
India is also a subscriber to the Special Data Dissemination Standards (SDSS), prescribed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). An IMF Mission, which made an assessment in 2001, found that there was, in India, a very high degree of compliance to the IMF Code on Fiscal Transparency.
the Finance Minister is obliged to place before the Parliament Quarterly Reports on the Fiscal and Economic Situation. The Monthly Fiscal Accounts of the Central Government are available on the website of the Ministry of Finance within a month of the reported month.
Right to Information Act under which any citizen can call upon the Government to make available information.
The Outcome Budget will be a powerful institutional mechanism to focus attention on the goals or targets to be achieved by spending the money allocated to the respective Departments.
By putting crucial data and information on expected outcomes in the public domain, there will be more informed public scrutiny that could help ensure better value for money.