The Government of India, Government of Uttarakhand and the World Bank signed a loan agreement of $31.58 million in order to strengthen Uttarakhand’s Public Financial Management System. The UKPFMS will enhance state’s ability to manage its finances and better utilise its funds for the development purpose of the state.
Uttarakhand is one of the five states with such a project to strengthen the financial accounting of the state. The project will support the state government’s initiative to build and modernise the technical and financial management capabilities of its urban local bodies and state-owned enterprises.
The loan agreement was signed by Ministry of Finance, Department of Economic Affairs additional secretary Sameer Kumar Khare, Uttarakhand finance additional secretary and deputy programme director of UKPFMS Savin Bansal and World Bank acting director, India, Shankar Lal.
Khare said that the Government of Uttarakhand has worked over the last decade to strengthen its public financial management system. The World Bank supported project will help the state enhance its accountability in public finances and increase the effectiveness of revenue management system in Uttarakhand.
Uttarakhand’s finance secretary Amit Singh Negi said that Uttarakhand had made considerable progress and this project will help state to deploy relevant technologies to further streamline the management of its finances, leading to a more efficient execution of public projects. This in turn will help people in Uttarakhand to access more and better quality public services. The project components will improve capacity in the areas of cash and debt management, planning and budgeting, appraisal and monitoring of high value projects and public audit. It will support measures to improve transparency of budget and procurement information by using GIS mapping technologies. The project will also strengthen the state’s revenue management system including corporations like GMVN and transport corporation among others. The project will benefit the local public of Uttarakhand by creating more transparent and efficient system of public finances including administration of tax and non-tax revenues.
The UKPFMS will help the State to improve its revenue base for greater availability of resources for its developmental needs. The project will be for a five year period. It is also aimed at enhancing the finance of the state by focusing on revenue augmentation.
It is for the first time that in the state that project is being implemented for institutional reforms and revenue enhancement from the World Bank support. It will also be creating a roadmap for improving capacity for sectoral revenue management systems. Various studies will be introduced for enhancing own source revenue of the state. Various departments in Uttarakhand will also be getting benefit from the upcoming project. The entire financial process of the treasury of the state will be available online.
Officials state that the outcome of the project will lead to enhanced accountability in public finances and revenue management system in Uttarakhand.
It will improve the accounting procedures, human resource management and reporting, the project will be overhauling the regulatory and technology framework across the finance department and revenue earning departments like excise, tourism and transport.