“Expenditure is authorised by the time”: PM Modi

TIL Desk/National/New Delhi/ Prime Minister Narendra Modi said advancing the date of budget presentation would help getting funds authorised for different sectors at the start of the fiscal, even as he stressed that people do not mind paying taxes if their money is spent properly. Addressing economists at Niti Aayog’s meeting on ‘Economic Policy – The Road Ahead’, he said that a change in the budget cycle would have an impact on the real economy.

“The date of budget presentation is being advanced so that expenditure is authorised by the time the new financial year begins,” the Prime Minister said.

The government is proposing to present the budget for 2017-18 on February 1 instead of the regular date of February 28. Also, there will be no separate railway budget for the next fiscal as the government has decided to merge it with the general budget.

Modi said under the existing budget calendar, the authorisation of expenditure comes with the onset of the monsoon which results in government programmes remaining relatively inactive in the productive pre-monsoon months. During the two-hour meeting, Modi also underlined the need for greater cooperation among different wings of the government.