Enhancing Fiscal Transparency and Reporting in India

November 13, 2020

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Format: Chicago

Patrick Blagrave, and Fabien Gonguet. Enhancing Fiscal Transparency and Reporting in India, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2020) accessed November 21, 2024

Disclaimer: IMF Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to encourage debate. The views expressed in IMF Working Papers are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF, its Executive Board, or IMF management.

Summary

Current fiscal transparency and reporting practices in India place it behind most peer G20 economies, implying that policy makers are lacking critical data to ground their fiscal and other economic planning decisions. The increasing use of off-budget financing at the central government level in recent years represents one key example of reduced transparency—we provide estimates of the public sector borrowing requirement and an extended notion of the fiscal deficit, each of which shows a more expansionary stance in recent years than ‘headline’ deficit figures presented in budget documents. We then investigate the current state of fiscal reporting practices in India and suggest areas for reforms—these include enhanced IT systems, stronger central-local coordination, and a gradual transition to accrual accounting.

Subject: Budget planning and preparation, Fiscal reporting, Fiscal risks, Fiscal transparency, Government debt management, Public financial management (PFM)

Keywords: Africa, Borrowing need, Budget planning and preparation, Budget Systems, Cash-basis accounting regime, Fiscal Reporting, Fiscal risks, General government data, Global, Government activity, Government debt management, Government Statistics, India, Union government, WP

Publication Details

Pages:

21
Volume:

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DOI:

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Issue:

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Series:

Working Paper No. 2020/250
Stock No:

WPIEA2020250
ISBN:

9781513559599
ISSN:

1018-5941

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