Government spending should be within means: Jaitley

Underlining the need for fiscal prudence and deficit control, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said governments spending more than their means could spark capital flight and loss in currency value.

"It is all the more important for the government of a country to have an efficient expenditure management failing which it may face situation like Greece," Jaitley said, addressing the first Indian Cost Accounts Service Day celebrations here.

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

If governments do not work within their means, it can have a lot of adverse consequences, warned Jaitley.

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

Pointing to the road of fiscal consolidation as either "you earn more or spend less", the finance minister said: "The ideal route is to do both. And that is what governments are now endeavouring to do."

Noting the permanent establishment of the government is the civil service, he said that it, though professional, is limited in its ability at analysing cost.

"And therefore, the creation of a catalyst service which analyses the cost and comes to a realistic assessment of cost is necessarily required," added Jaitley.