The Union Finance Minister, Shri Arun Jaitley has kindly consented to be the Chief Guest at the Inaugural Session of a function organised tomorrow, 1^st March, 2018 in national capital  to mark the 42^nd Civil Accounts Day .On the occasion , the Finance Minister, Shri Jaitley will inaugurate the Centralized GP Fund Module of PFMS for all the Central Government Employees. The centralized GPF module meets a long standing demand of the Central Government Employees for a mapping of GPF Accounts with the unique Employee ID thereby facilitating online application for GPF advances and withdrawals with online access to the employee’s current GPF balances. The module will streamline GPF accounting and transfer of balances.

During the Inaugural Session, the Finance Minister, Shri Jaitley will also inaugurate the ePPO module of PFMS for complete end –to –end electronic processing of Pension cases. The ePPO includes the integration of the BHAVISHYA application of the Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare and the PARAS application of CPAO with PFMS for seamless processing of Pension cases thereby eliminating delays and errors involved in manual processing.

A function is being organized on March 1, 2018 at D.S. Kothari Auditorium, DRDO Bhawan Complex, New Delhi to mark the 42^nd Civil Accounts Day.

            The Union Finance Minister, Shri Arun Jaitley has kindly consented to be the Chief Guest at the Inaugural Session from 10:30 AM -11:30 AM. The Union Minister of State for Finance, Shri Pon. Radhakrishnan will preside over this Session. The Secretary (Expenditure), Shri A. N. Jha and the Controller General of Accounts(CGA), Shri Anthony Lianzuala will be the other dignitaries at the Inaugural Session.

            It may be mentioned here that the Union Finance Minister, Shri Arun Jaitley had earlier graced the 40^th Civil Accounts Day function on March 1, 2016 in which the Hon’ble President of India was the Chief Guest. The Union Finance Minister, Shri Jaitley had also very graciously inaugurated the ‘Mahalekha Niyantrak Bhawan’, the new building of this office on September 14, 2016.

            Earlier, the Finance Minister had been kind enough to launch the mandatory use of PFMS for Central –Sector schemes monitoring (Oct 2015), the Non –Tax Receipts Portal (NTRP) (Feb 2016) and the Web Responsive Pensioners’ Service of the Central Pension Accounting Office (CPAO) (September 2016).

   The Union Government initiated a major reform in Public Financial Management in 1976. The Audit and Accounts functions were separated by relieving the Comptroller and Auditor General of his responsibility of preparation of Union Government accounts. The accounting function was brought directly under the control of the Executive. Consequently, the Indian Civil Accounts Service (ICAS) was established. The ICAS was carved out from the Indian Audit & Accounts Service (IA & AS), initially through the promulgation of an Ordinance amending the C & AG’s (Duties, Powers and Conditions of Service) Amendment Act, 1976. Later on, the Departmentalization of Union Accounts (Transfer of Personnel) Act, 1976 was enacted by Parliament and assented to by Hon’ble President of India on 8^th April, 1976. The Act was deemed to have come into force with effect from 1^st March, 1976. Accordingly, the ICAS is celebrating March 1 every year as the “Civil Accounts Day”.

             Since its inception the ICAS has steadily grown in stature and now plays an important role in the management of public finances of the Union Government

            Other highlights of the 42^nd Civil Accounts Day function are

* Inauguration of the Centralised GPF and ePPO modules of PFMS

Reforms in public financial management are a continuous process. Structural changes take place in the economy and in the functioning of government which demand accounting data on public finances to be available to decision makers, often on real time basis. This demand for faster information can only be met through adoption of technology. Recognizing this need, the Service has since its inception, been a pioneer in the use of Information Technology in Payments, Accounting and Financial Reporting.

* Keynote address by Shri N. K. Singh, Chairman, Fifteenth Finance Commission (FFC)

            Shri N. K. Singh, Chairman, FFC will deliver the keynote address at the Plenary Session from 12.00 PM to 12.50 PM on the topic “Managing Public Finances for a resurgent India”. The Address will be of tremendous significance in the context of fiscal discipline efforts of the Union and the States that would be required to achieve fiscal consolidation.

* Address by Shri Rajnish Kumar, Chairman, State Bank of India

The post-lunch session (2:00 PM -2:50 PM) will feature a talk by Shri Rajnish Kumar, Chairman, State Bank of India on the topics “Leveraging Information Technology for an efficient receipt and payment system of the Government of India”. As the head of the premier accredited and aggregator bank for Government business, the views of Chairman, SBI on the subject would be of immense significance especially in the context of implementation of the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) with a seamless integration with the banking systems.

Concluding session

This Session will be an Open House Session where Service Officers will interact for a way forward on issues relating to Accounts, IT and Internal Audit.