NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said the Single Nodal Account (SNA) dashboard, which ensures tracking of fund transfer to states and its utilisation, will make governance more transparent and realise better value for every rupee sent by the Centre.
The SNA dashboard was launched by the minister on Tuesday as part of the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav iconic week celebrations. The dashboard will provide a platform for ministries/departments to monitor their transfer of funds to states, utilisation by the implementing agencies and assist in cash management of the government.
Speaking at the event, Sitharaman said about Rs 4.46 lakh crore gets transferred to states by way of Centrally Sponsored Schemes and SNA would bring about greater transparency in the spending of the amount.
"About Rs 4.46 lakh crore go through the Centrally Sponsored schemes and this is not a small amount. Today you are in a position to track that money ...It is a huge success in making governance transparent. That quantum of money is also equally sent just in time...What better value realisation for every rupee sent," Sitharaman said.
Stating that 'just in time' are the three magic words in fund transfer, she said the SNA would make payments easy. "This kind of a achievement for a complex governance country like India, if it is possible here it is possible in many, many other countries as well. Like the way it is (for) Aadhaar, Cowin app, like the way we have payment system UPI. This for governance is the UPI. You made every payment easy," the minister said.
Finance Secretary TV Somanathan said this system would help cut down on the interest expenditure as money would be released at the stage where it is needed. "If the money is stuck somewhere, we would like to minimise what is stuck and hold it where it is more efficiently held. GoI would like to pay as little as possible of public money as interest. So the SNA and TSA (Treasury Single Account) help us to minimise the interest costs borne by the GoI and that is not a trivial cost. That is actually helps us a lot, particularly in a difficult year like current financial year. These are extremely helpful in containing fiscal deficit within what is possible," Somanathan said.
The government has been able to save about Rs 10,000 crore in interest cost in the last fiscal due to introduction of TSA.