Prabhu pitches for IT-enabled accounting reforms for railways

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu today said that the accounting department of Indian Railways should be developed and made more IT-oriented at a time when it is backing huge investments to upgrade the infrastructure.
The minister was addressing a workshop on 'Accounting for Accountability' held in collaboration with Ministry of Railways.
The project, initiated by the railways for introducing accounting reforms, assumes greater relevance today considering the fact that Indian Railways is embarking on huge investments in infrastructure both from government and institutional finance, an official release from the Railways said.
"He stressed on the need for a systematic approach in developing an integrated IT-enabled accounting architecture with a clear focus on measurement of outputs and outcomes of operational activities while formulating the budget," the statement said.

Indian Railways has engaged the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) in developing a design for implementing an integrated Outcome Budgeting and Performance Costing System.
An Advisory Body consisting of domain experts and a multi-disciplinary Working Group of Railways has been constituted to assist the ICAI in designing a detailed framework of proposed accounting system as envisaged in the budget announcement.
In addition, the Railways is also conducting a pilot study on introduction of 'Accrual Accounting' at Ajmer Division, and Ajmer group of Workshops with the assistance of the Accounting Research Foundation of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.