India scores 60 to rank 13th in budget transparency

New Delhi: Though India is known for having a complex web of public spending and revenue collection system, the country ranks 13th among 85 countries for its budget transparency, securing a score of 60 out of 100 for the same. "It is challenging to track India's public spending, revenue collections and borrowings during the year", says researcher, Siba Sankar Mohanty, Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA), as reported by The Economic Times.

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The country publishes detailed reports on the budgetary plans for the year but misses the important details in its mid-year review. India also makes its audit reports public and provides information on whether the audit recommendations have been implemented. Though amateurish, India is one of only 17 countries in the study that publishes a Citizens Budget, which presents budget information to public in an easily understandable format.

Conducted by Washington based International Budget Partnership along with CBGA, the survey pinpoints ways to make the budget process crystal clear. The opportunities for citizen participation in budget debates could be increased. In addition India's Comptroller and Auditor General receives very little public input on potential subjects for audits, so it could expand efforts to generate feedback.

The countries, who maintain the highest transparency making abundant data available to the public throughout the budget process, include UK, South Africa, France, New Zealand and U.S. Among the worst, it is countries like Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Rwanda, Equitorial Guinea who scarcely make the informations available.