Govt may table Jalan panel report in Par next week

The government is likely to table in Parliament next week a report of the Expenditure Management Commission that suggests rationalising and merging centrally-sponsored schemes and extending the Direct Benefit Transfer scheme to all subsidies and welfare payments.
The Commission, headed by former RBI Governor Bimal Jalan in the final report, has favoured expenditure reform and rationalisation rather than reduction.
It was also in favour of eliminating the distinction between plan and non-plan expenditure.
Official sources said the full report of the commission would be made public after it is tabled in Parliament next week.
The commission members, they said, met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today.

Bulk of the focus of the report was on reducing administrative costs and disburse funds for various schemes more efficiently.

Sources said it favoured using Aadhaar unique identification numbers for direct benefit transfer (DBT) of subsidies and government benefits.
The Commission, which included former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Deputy Governor Subir Gokarn and former Finance Secretary Sumit Bose, was appointed in September 2014 to suggest expenditure reforms with a view to overhaul subsidy regime and lower fiscal deficit.
The panel was asked to review majors areas of expenditure and suggest ways of creating fiscal space required to meet developmental expenditure needs without compromising the commitment to fiscal discipline.

It was also asked to review the institutional arrangement including budgeting process and FRBM rules, for enforcing aggregate fiscal discipline and suggest improvements.
The Commission was also asked to suggest measures to improve allocative efficiencies, design framework to improve operational efficiency of expenditures and recommend measures to achieve reduction in financial costs through better cash management system.
The terms of reference of the Commission also asked it to suggest improved financial reporting system and consider any other relevant issue concerning public expenditure management in central government.
The panel submitted its interim report in January last year and its final report before the Budget of 2016-17.