Finance minister moots efficient expenditure management system

Finance minister Arun Jaitley has said that the government should have an efficient expenditure management system to avoid the pitfalls that economies like that of Greece have fallen into.

He said that for a good governance, the government has not only to augment its resources through better revenue collections but also to manage its expenditure well or even both.

Speaking after inaugurating the first Indian Cost Accounts Service Day in New Delhi on Sunday, the finance minister said that in post liberalized era, competitiveness, cost and efficiency management have become the key words of survival and growth.

He asked the officers of the Cost Accounts Service to upgrade their professional skills and expertise in order to play a proactive role in assisting the government in achieving the highest level of cost efficiency in its projects, schemes and operations.

"The public exchequer, government money is people's money after all and this money is something which is sacrosanct. Sacrosanct for the reason that governments have to learn the discipline of living within their means," he said.

In the inter-connected world, if governments do not live within their means, it can have a huge adverse consequences, Jaitley added.

"It can lead to outflow of capital... it can have an adverse impact on your currency rates...It can knock off fiscal discipline," Jaitley said.

The government has pegged the fiscal deficit at 3.9 per cent of the GDP for FY 2015-16 and proposed to lower it to 3 per cent by FY 2017-18

Later, the finance minister also released a book on this occasion laying the future roadmap for Indian Cost Accounts Service.

He also presented mementos to the former chief cost advisers on this occasion.