Budget Musings
| Published date | 15 January 2021 |
| Author | DEVENDRA SAKSENA |
| Date | 15 January 2021 |
| Publication title | Statesman, The (India) |
A small example would suffice. The Government had provided for an expenditure of Rs12.28 lakh crores in Budget 2020, around 40 per cent of the total Budget spending, for the more than 160 Schemes (Major Central Sector and Centrally Sponsored Schemes) of the Government. The outcome of these Schemes was evaluated by their implementers, but even this limited assessment showed that many Schemes are not doing satisfactorily. An obvious starting point to reduce wasteful expenditure would be a deep audit of all such Schemes by an external agency.
Then, the governance cost has increased by leaps and bounds. Budget 2020 provides for Establishment Expenditure of Rs 6.10 lakh crore, most of which is towards wages and entitlements of Government employees. Still, most Central Government departments spend a lot of money for outsourcing ministerial, maintenance and other services. In fact, at the lower level, most of the work is done by outsourced personnel while permanent employees engage themselves in other pursuits.
No responsibility attaches for the work done by the outsourced employees, as the providing agency rotates them frequently. Moreover, regular Government employees are wellqualified and join after clearing a difficult examination, but the same cannot be said about the outsourced personnel. Given the limited abilities of outsourced personnel and the circumstances under which they operate, the quality of service to the public also suffers. A pretty sum can be saved and better services provided to the public if regular employees are made to discharge their prescribed duties and the services of outsourced staff are taken only wherever necessary.
After introduction of GST, with a peak rate of 28 per cent (plus a 22 per cent surcharge for some commodities), ours has become an...
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