1. Open Budget Survey 2015: What does it say about budget transparency in India? Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability

2. India Vs. South Asian Countries in OBS 2015 Score 0-20: Scant or None; 21-40: Minimal; 41-60: Limited; 61-80: Substantial; 81 and above: Extensive

3. Public Availability of Eight Key Budget Documents in South Asian Countries

4. Availability of Budget Documents in India during Various Rounds of OBS

5. India’s Budget Transparency Score since its inception

6. Reasons for Decline in OBI 2015 Score for India Delay in publishing the Mid-Year Review Report and the Year-End Report; One of the underlying reasons could be that the position of Chief Economic Advisor to the Union Ministry of Finance was vacant for more than a year starting from September 2013. The delay in producing two of the eight required documents seems to have been a temporary digression; However, these two reports produced timely in the subsequent FY

7. India’s Performance on Public Participation There are 16 questions in OBS 2015 to measure scope for public to participate in the budget cycle; India’s score on this count is 19 out of 100, whereas Global Average is 25 This indicates that the provision of opportunities for the public in the budget process is weak. In the South Asia Region, Afghanistan (27) and Bangladesh (23) are ahead of India’s score.

8. GAPs in Public Participation Very limited scope for public to participate in budget formulation stage; Legislatures do not hold public hearings on the budget; No formal mechanisms, where public can participate in budget process; Very limited scope for public to participate in the execution stage-Social Audit; Limited scope in participating in the Auditing stage, except through Advisory Board- No other formal mechanism to participate in this stage.

9. Budget Oversight India’s score is 39 out of 100 with respect to the scope for effective oversight by the legislature; and In Planning stage the Legislature provides weak oversight and in Implementation stage it gives limited oversight. With respect to the oversight role by the SAI of India, India scored 75 out of 100-Adequate. The Good Practices in India are: – Office of the SAI is independent – It has the full discretion to undertake audit, as it sees fit. – Chief of SAI cannot be removed without legislative or Judicial approval

10. Key Recommendations On Improving Transparency: – Produce and Publish Pre-Budget Statement; – Institutionalize the publication of budget documents in a timely manner; – Increase the comprehensiveness of the Citizens Budget Document; Executive’s Budget Proposal and In-Year Reports

11. Key Recommendations On Improving Participation: – Establish credible and effective mechanisms for public to participate; – Institutionalize such practices by amending budget manual of the country; On Improving Oversight – Establish a specialized Budget Research Centre for the Legislature so that they can participate effectively

12. Finally… Strong ‘Political Will’ is required to improve transparency score of the country. There are encouraging examples of such strong political will being exercised in India. For example- – Union Budget funds under Central Schemes do not bypass the State Budgets anymore; – Union Government invited suggestions and inputs for the Union Budget 2015-16 from the general public ; – time for the budget making process for the Union Budget 2016-17 has been extended by advancing the commencement of this process by two months – An opportunity to make the Pre-Budget consultations more substantive this time onwards