FM Sitharaman Calls on Civil Accounts Officers to Simplify Govt’s Annual Accounts

On Saturday, Nirmala Sitharaman, India’s Finance Minister, asked officials in the Civil Accounts services to do more in making the details of the annual accounts of the Government of India more accessible.

While speaking at the 49th Civil Accounts Day function here, Sitharaman commended the Indian Civil Accounts Service (ICAS) officers headed by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) for the “silent technological revolution” where states are able to do their government business with much more ease because of the adoption of the public financial management system (PFMS). 

"I would also like you to examine, in consultation with the CAG, whether it would be possible to make the annual accounts more approachable and user-friendly and allow citizens to analyse easily and generate customisable and simpler reports," she stated.

She mentioned that now that the states are increasingly digitizing, additional work can be done with the data available with the CGA. “If you are able to make the report a lot more user friendly, that itself can generate a lot of interest in the work that you do,” the Minister said.

Sitharaman also instructed both the Expenditure Department and the CGA to facilitate the smooth implementation of SNA Sparsh for all schemes in the next financial year.

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“CGA needs to support states in completing the switching from wherever they are to SNA SPARSH and in persuading them to appreciate the benefits of the swift adjustment to this reform,” she told.

The PFMS system ensures the effective cash management in the Central Government system via the “Just in time” system: funds are transferred when needed, and their achievement is precisely monitored from the release to the credit in the bank account of intended targets.

SNA SPARSH is a system which enables the rapid disbursement of funds to states for CSS.

Presently, Centre has released more than Rs 13.60 lakh hore using the SNA module, which includes 141 CSS, 4,972 state-linked schemes and more than 15 lakh agencies. 

Sitharaman also encourage the Civil Accounts Officers to bring about greater public appreciation of the effective utilization of tax resources. “Every rupee is taken seriously and therefore some public engagements to make people understand that this is the most critical job for the finances of the country, not just for the government of India,” she said.