FinMin begins Budget exercise

The finance min­istry on Fri­day ini­ti­at­ed the bud­getary exer­cise for 2015–16, seek­ing inputs from gov­ern­ment min­istries and depart­ments. “The Bud­get cir­cu­lar for 2015–16 is here­by issued, con­tain­ing the time­lines for sub­mis­sion to the finance min­istry, along with pre­scribed for­mats,” stat­ed an office memorandum.

The cir­cu­lar also con­tains a com­pendi­um of instruc­tions issued from time to time by the min­istry on var­i­ous issues. Pre­scrib­ing time­lines for sub­mis­sion of pro­pos­als, dis­cus­sion with sec­re­taries and final­i­sa­tion of demand for grants, it asked offi­cials to strict­ly adhere to the schedule.

The min­istries have been asked to sub­mit revised esti­mates of expen­di­ture for 2014–15 and demands for grants for the next finan­cial year, begin­ning April 1. The Bud­get, which con­tains revised esti­mates for the cur­rent finan­cial year and esti­mates for the next, is pre­sent­ed by the finance min­is­ter in the Lok Sab­ha on the last work­ing day of February.

This would be the sec­ond Bud­get of the Naren­dra Modi-led gov­ern­ment after the Bud­get for 2014–15 pre­sent­ed on July 10.