The minister on Tuesday also launched a Single Nodal Account (SNA) dashboard that will allow the Centre to release funds to states for centrally sponsored schemes, monitor their usage, track all transactions, and save on interest it pays for unutilised funds.
Speaking at a Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) event marking the ongoing weeklong celebrations of ‘Azadi ka Amrut Mahotsav’, Sitharaman said NFRA will have a larger role to play, and the government intends to soon refer a few cases to NFRA for regulatory consideration.
Both CCI and NFRA are going to play a key role in the Indian economy in the next 25 years, she said.
CCI has made a major contribution in bursting cartels and controlling mergers in a very soft but significant way, and has been doing a significant job in making sure India’s free market is fair, she said.
JUST IN TIME
The SNA dashboard will add more efficiency in the cash management of the Centre, minimising any leakage and enabling transfer of funds just in time, and is a huge success in making governance transparent, Sitharaman said.
“About ₹4.46 lakh crore go through the centrally sponsored schemes and this is not a small amount,” she said. “Today, you are in a position to track that money.”
Finance secretary TV Somanathan said this system will help cut down on interest expenditure as money will 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. The GoI (Government of India) would like to pay as little as possible of public money as interest,” he said. “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.”
This will help the Centre a lot, particularly in a difficult year like current financial year, Somanathan said.