Next year onwards, the finance ministry is planning to introduce new elements in its Budget papers in an attempt to improve transparency in government finances.
For starters, the finance ministry is working on a detailed reckoning of the Centre's assets that will become a part of the Budget documents.
This will include the details of all capital expenditure to be undertaken by ministries and departments, the value of roads and building, and estimates of the government's physical and financial assets.
In addition, the break-up of tax and non-tax arrears is proposed to be disclosed along with a statement on the guarantees extended by the government.
A part of the obligation is on account of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act. The law has mandated that the government disclose the position on guarantees, which are to be capped at 0.5 per cent of the gross domestic product. The details of the Centre's contingent liability is unavailable now.
At present, the Budget documents include the details of receipts, expenditure, the Finance Bill, demand for grants, the explanatory memorandum to tax proposals and the FRBM statement, which is the latest inclusion.
A few years ago, the finance ministry started tabling an "Action Taken" report on announcements made in previous Budgets. This year, the government has introduced an Outcome Budget, which was not part of the Budget. But Finance Minister P Chidambaram hopes to make it an annual feature.
Finance ministry officials said the details and the form in which data would be made available were being deliberated upon though in certain cases like tax and non-tax arrears, the Centre wanted to restrict itself to the overall number.
In case of capex, the government is planning to include the purchases of computers but is likely to restrict it to an expenditure of Rs 200,000 and above. But a ministry-wise break-up has been ruled out as it will mean that the Budget papers become even more bulky.
The valuation of the Centre's physical assets, estimated at Rs 12,00,000 crore (Rs 12,000 billion) at the end of 2004-05, will be based on the book value of the assets.
"The system is not geared to record the market value of the assets. Maybe, later we will shift to the market value but it will be nearly impossible to get someone to value the Rashtrapati Bhavan or the North Block," said an official.
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