Delhi govt starts budget planning

NEWDELHI: Starting its pre-budget exercise for the financial year 2018-19, the Delhi government has asked all departments to provide details of their achievements of the third quarter of the goaloriented ‘outcome budget 2017-18’.

The government is likely to present the budget for the financial year 2018-19 in the first week of March, with focus on education, health and transport.

A Delhi government official, who is privy to the developments, said the government would start a three-day departmentwise discussion on the achievement of outcome budget from February 7.

Rationalisation of existing output and outcome indicators will be the main focus of the discussion.

According to the schedule, a discussion on the proposals and expenditure of the departments of education, art, culture and languages, women and child welfare, SC/ST, social welfare, labour and the Delhi Subordinate Services Selection Board (DSSSB) will be held on February 7.

A discussion on the outcome budget achievements and the proposals of the departments of health, home, tourism, development and environment departments will be conducted on February 8

On February 9, a dialogue will be held on the public works department (PWD), Delhi Jal Board (DJB) and urban development (UD) and revenue departments, the official said.

Last year, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia had presented the outcome budget 2017-18 to ensure transparency and accountability in expenditure of the departments.

Apart from ensuring transparency and accountability of expenditure, the outcome budget helps in evaluating performance of officials and it is included in their annual confidential report (ACR), the official added.

Sisodia, who holds finance portfolio, had conducted a second quarter review of the outcome budget, which included 1,938 indicators, between November 28 and December 7 last year.