Efficient financial management plugs hole, saves Rs130 cr wastage from state exchequer

Believe it or not, efficient financial management by the Mamata Banerjee government has resulted in stopping of wasteful expenditure to the tune of Rs 130 crore per year.

This has been possible by implementing the system of online disbursement of salary for around seven lakh employees through e-Integrated Finance Management System (e-IFMS).

The success of the state government in saving such a huge amount annually comes at the time when the Trinamool Congress government has to carry forward with the huge debt burden left by the erstwhile Left Front government and at the same time has to fund several social projects for which the Modi government has slashed its funding.

Not only just saving of public money, the system has ensured timely salary on the last date of a month directly to the bank accounts of an employee by bringing a paradigm shift in the "mechanism" that had been existing

since the erstwhile Left Front government when a large section of employees of autonomous bodies, school and college teachers used to get their salaries in hand not before the 15th of every month in cheques.

At present, there are around 10.15 lakh employees including the seven lakh school and college teachers and employees of autonomous bodies like Municipalities. All the employees are now enjoying the benefits of e-IFMS, said an official of the state Finance department.

An additional Rs 130 crore every year, apart from the total salary amount of the employees, used to get drained out of the state's exchequer just for the system of paying salary through cheques as bankers' commission of 0.1 per cent had to be paid to the concerned banks for "handling of cash". Every month, a part of the amount had to be paid as bankers' commission to give salary to employees of autonomous bodies, school and college teachers for the period when the money used to flow from the banks to the employees' bank accounts.

A calculation by the officials of the West Bengal Accounts and Audit Service revealed the shocking fact that the state's exchequer used to bleed a total loss of Rs 130 crore every year just for nothing.

Immediate steps were taken and initiatives were taken to check the loss. Officials of the same service prepared the portal for e-IFMS along with different modules including e-Pradan through which online disbursement of salaries directly to bank accounts of the employees came into existence. It started helping the state government to save public money from the 2014-15 financial year.

It may be recalled that the Bengal government has bagged CSI Nihilent eGovernance Awards (CNEA) for 2014-15 and 2015-16 fiscals for implementation of e-IFMS and I-budget respectively.

Before the introduction of the e-IFMS, salary bills of employees were submitted to the treasury by Drawing and Disbursement Officers (DDOs) posted in each office. The treasury used to issue salary cheques in favour of the employees "as per advice of the DDOs". The DDOs had to collect the cheques from the treasury and distribute among employees.

Now, through e-Pradan, a module of e-IFMS, online payment system has come into existence making the task easier, faster and most importantly checking an annual loss of Rs 130 crore.

With implementation of the online system, issuing of cheques has been discontinued. The DDOs as usual submit salary bills to the treasury. After verifying the bills with the data of the employees,the treasury issues an order to the concerned bank to make payments to the employees' back accounts. The bank will report to the treasury whether the transfer was successful or not through e-Pradan.

The Mamata Banerjee government implemented the e-IFMS since 2014 in phases comprising all aspects of treasury and budget functions including "integration of receipts and expenditure accounts" with an objective to improve financial management and provide better services to common people. E-Bantan, another modul of e-IFMS, has ensured that all sorts of allotments are being released online to officers of all levels as well as treasury.