Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The finance department is set to begin preparations for the next state Budget in one or two weeks. Before that, it has taken steps to bring more transparency and uniformity to the budgeting process.
In the next state Budget, there will be no budget provisions under object heads or detailed heads that are no longer in use, are repetitive or have become irrelevant.
These heads have been made inactive for the upcoming Budget. At least 22 such detailed heads have been identified as inactive.
The finance department has taken the decision in the light of guidelines on the standardisation and concordance mapping of object heads, in accordance with the directives of Government of India.
To adopt the standardised object heads prescribed by the GOI, the finance department has issued various directives for the Budget estimates for financial year 2027-28 and subsequent years.
To improve budgetary transparency and bring uniformity in financial reporting, the object heads and detailed heads used earlier have been merged to create new five-digit detailed heads.
Budget provisions will now be made under these merged five-digit detailed heads. Previously, accounting-related problems were encountered as the state Budget's segment code comprised four digits.
Apart from this, the threshold for capital expenditure categorisation has been fixed. For expenditure related to asset creation, the finance limit has been fixed at Rs 1 lakh.
Expenditure below this amount will be treated under the revenue category, such as small construction works or maintenance.
The entire exercise is being carried out to align the state's budgetary structure with the National Public Finance Management System.
