Budget documents in the future may give a preview of the government's finances for the next few years. The finance ministry is considering moving to a multi-year approach in budgeting to utilise resources better and bring in more transparency in accounting, according to official sources.
The idea is in a nascent stage and, thus, will not be implemented in the coming Budget. Even so, it has drawn strength from the recent recommendations of the C Rangarajan panel on efficient management of public expenditure.
The high-level expert committee appointed up by the Planning Commission has suggested a shift in the budgeting approach - from a one-year horizon to a multi-year one. It noted the absence of multi-year expenditure information, saying it was making it difficult to link planning and budgeting.
A piecemeal approach to sanctioning of funds and schemes leads to loss of considerable time and delays in the realisation of objectives. Hence, a multi-year framework may address this problem.
"We can easily provide estimates of subsidy, interest and pension burden for the next few years," says a finance ministry official.
"We can tell Parliament
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