July 12, 2018
Thanks to Bengal’s financial management systems, beneficiaries getting paid faster
The State Government’s Integrated Finance Management System (IFMS) and other reforms have reduced the average time taken by the treasuries of various departments to pay beneficiaries of various schemes and projects to 1.37 days on an average. This milestone was achieved at the beginning of 2018-19 fiscal.
This was announced at a recent meeting attended by 300 officials, including pay and accounts official, treasury officials and officials of the Finance Department, and led by the Finance Minister, Dr Amit Mitra, the additional chief secretary of the Finance Department and the director of treasuries and accounts.
The average time taken by treasuries to process and make payment to beneficiaries was 3.36 days in 2016-17, when the IFMS and other systems began to be implemented. It dropped to 2.28 days in 2017-18 and finally to 1.37 days at the beginning of 2018-19.
Besides IFMS, the state Finance department has brought in Human Resource Management System (HRMS), Government Receipt Portal System (GRIPS), e-pension, inter-treasury transfer of funds facility and online GPF management of group D employees.
Reduction of the time needed to process bills has ensured that benefits reach the beneficiaries at the grassroots level as fast as possible, which in turn has ensured timely completion of the development projects taken up by the State Government, bringing around an overall development of Bengal. At the same time, social welfare schemes are also being implemented in a timely manner.
Source: Millennium Post
