Indian Express: New Delhi: Saturday,
February 25, 2017.
Citing
“unnecessary criticism” due to shortage of Budget copies last year, the Budget
division under the Ministry of Finance doubled the number of printed copies of
2017-18 Union Budget this year. After receiving communication from Ministry of
Parliamentary Affairs, the Ministry of Finance directed printing of over 4,000
copies of 2017-18 Union Budget to avoid “any shortage and complaints of
shortage” experienced last year.
The Ministry
of Finance had printed total 2,042 copies of 2016-17 Budget last year, lower
than 5,060 copies of 2015-16 Budget printed a year earlier, official records
accessed by The Indian Express through a Right To Information (RTI) query
showed.
“Due to the
restricted number of copies printed, the Budget division faced unnecessary
criticism. Keeping in mind, the number of sets given in 2015-16 and the demand
for sets, it is proposed to print 4,025 English sets and 480 Hindi sets,” a
Budget division official wrote in an internal communication in October 2016.
Last year, the Ministry of Finance had to print additional 1,000 copies of
2016-17 Budget after both houses of Parliament, Reserve Bank of India and
offices of Finance Minister and Ministers of State for Finance demanded more
printed copies owing to a shortage.
The Budget
division official in another set of internal communication said that they do
not intend to print any additional copies this year. The maximum share of
printed copies of Union Budget for 2017-18 were allocated to Lok Sabha with 650
English copies and 200 Hindi copies, followed by 525 copies to Press
Information Bureau (PIB) and 425 copies to Rajya Sabha. Around 150 copies of
Budget were allocated for circulation among secretaries and financial advisers
of ministries.
The PIB had
informed Budget division that 100 sets of 2017-18 Budget allocated for them
would be insufficient to meet their demand and requested for at least 1,000
sets for distribution among media persons. In view of the measures for bringing
down the expenses related to Budget preparation, the Standing Committee on
Finance of 16th Lok Sabha had recommended constitution of expert group to
review and rationalise the Budget documents. With an aim to make Budget
preparation as cost effective, environment friendly, the Ministry of Finance
last year rationalised the Budget copies to around 2,000. However, after
distribution to all stakeholders, entire quantity got exhausted and therefore,
it was decided to print over 4,000 copies of Budget for 2017-18.