Jalan panel to submit 2nd report on expenditure mgt by Nov-end

The Expenditure Management Commission, set up to suggest ways to rationalise subsidies and prune wasteful expenses, is scheduled to submit its second report to the Finance Minister by the end of the month.
The report assumes significance as the Finance Ministry has begun the process of firming up proposals for the 2016-17 Budget to be unveiled in February next year.
The Commission, headed by former RBI governor Bimal Jalan, has already submitted its first report to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in October.
"We have prepared the final report in three parts. It deals with 12 sectors. One report we have submitted last month, the next we will submit by this month-end and the last one will be submitted in January," Jalan said.

The reports deal with subsidy rationalisation, improvement in procurement policies and management of PSUs.
The government has already introduced direct benefit transfer scheme to plug leaks in LPG subsidy and other welfare schemes to ensure that the benefit reaches the poor directly.

The government has already introduced direct benefit transfer scheme to plug leaks in LPG subsidy and other welfare schemes to ensure the benefit reaches the poor directly.
Government transfer LPG subsidy -- the difference between subsidised price and market rate -- to users directly into their bank accounts.
The government was also working at how to streamline the kerosene subsidy and bring it under DBT. According to estimates, government would save about Rs 4,000-5,000 crore if kerosene subsidy is transfered through DBT.

The Expenditure management commission was set up in September 2014 to review expenditure of the government.
According to the terms of reference, the commission would look into various aspects of expenditure reforms to be undertaken by the government such as review of the institutional arrangements including budgeting process and Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) rules.
It was also to suggest ways to improve allocative efficiencies in the existing expenditure classification system, and other issues concerning public expenditure management.
The Commission had submitted its interim report in January and is mandated to submit the final one before Budget 2016-17.
Former finance secretary Sumit Bose and former RBI deputy governor Subir Gokarn are members of the Commission.

Subsidy rationalisation is high on economic agenda of the government as it plans to cut down the fiscal deficit to 3.9 per cent in the current year and further to 3 per cent by 2017-18. In the past fiscal, the deficit was 4 per cent of GDP.