More transparency in Budget making over 10 years: FM Nirmala Sitharaman

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman Monday said the Modi government is committed to pursuing reforms to make India a developed nation while highlighting improved transparency in Budget making in the past decade, helping reshape it from a mere record of expenditures into a "strategic blueprint for equitable development" overcoming past constraints and archaic practices.

"We make judicious and efficient use of every rupee collected from our taxpayers and give them a transparent picture of public finances," Sitharaman said in a series of posts on X, citing recent years' reforms in preparing the Budget.

She said the Modi government has prioritised transparency in its budgeting practices and data, unlike during the previous Congress-led UPA government's tenure, where standard fiscal practices were routinely changed to make Budget numbers look favourable.


"Our government has reshaped the budget from a mere record of expenditures into a strategic blueprint for equitable development," she said, adding that countries with transparent budgets are often viewed more favourably by international bodies such as IMF and World Bank.