Presentation of outcome Budget sketchy, says panel

A parliamentary standing committee on Finance has flayed the new practice of presenting outcome Budget in a single document along with the Union Budget and said that it has resulted in the outcome Budget becoming "sketchy" for each ministry and has not served any purpose.

The committee, therefore, suggested the government revert to the earlier practice of presenting outcome Budget separately for each ministry.

"The committee noted that usually outcome Budget is presented to Parliament separately for each ministry/department. However, last year and this year, the outcome Budget has been presented as a single document in a consolidated manner along with the General Budget.

"This has resulted in this important document becoming rather sketchy for each ministry without necessary details indicating the year-wise progress in the implementation of various schemes/projects," the Standing Committee on Finance said in its report, which was tabled in the House Friday.

The committee said that the consolidated outcome Budget document also did not give the year-wise comparisons of performance, targets and achievements of the money spent or not utilised in the last three years.

"It only provides the name of the scheme, funds earmarked, the purpose and projections for next year. However, whether the money spent last year for a purpose and has actually achieved the objective is not reflected. The committee thus finds that the outcome Budget so presented neither serves the intended purpose nor is transparent in so far as performance of the government is concerned," the report said.

It, therefore, recommended that the earlier practice of presenting the outcome Budget separately of each ministry/department along with respective detailed Demands for Grants may be "restored for better appreciation of the implementation of various government schemes and projects".