From 50 Years Ago: Government Accounting.

Government Accounting In the last para of the second editorial “Time for Change” in your issue of March 11, it is stated that public appreciation of questions in the field of development financing would be greatly enhanced if the form of the budget were adopted in such a way as to mirror clear-ly emerging changes in the economic func-tions of the State, but you have pointed out that this “depends on our revolutionising the accounting procedures in Government”. It is not clear how you come to the conclusion that amplification and revision of the budget can be done only after the accounting procedures in the Government are completely changed, or in other words, that, unless the Government accounting procedures are changed radically, it would not be possible to furnish the re-quired details in the budget... Whatever de-tails are required for amplification of the budget in the manner suggested can... be easily provided by the existing accounting procedures of our Government, without any radical (or even minor) change thereof. B G BALAKRISHNAN Hindustan Steel, Ranchi [The point is not whether every rupee re-ceived or spent by the Government is record-ed, nor whether this is done in great detail. The complaint is about obfuscation in the manner of recording, which makes it virtually impossible for the non-expert to appreciate, for instance, the extent of the Government’s production and trading activities... .