The Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, today organised a half-day workshop with the Secretaries of various Ministries and Departments of the Government of India, and initiated an elaborate exercise for ‘Appraisal and Approval of the Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSSs) and the Central Sector Schemes (CSs)’ for their continuation over the next five years. The new five year cycle will start on 1st April 2026 and is aligned with the 16th Finance Commission (FC) cycle.
The policy of evaluation of ongoing schemes and having a sunset date for each scheme was articulated by the Government of India in the Union Budget Speech of 2016, which stated that in order to improve the quality of public expenditure; every scheme will have a sunset date and an outcome review. Accordingly, the schemes have been aligned with the Finance Commission cycles and its continuation is based on the evaluation of each scheme by a third party.
Various policy priorities of the Government of India like challenge mode of financing for schemes, universal Aadhaar-based Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), convergence of various schemes for having a greater impact, eliminating duplication, attaching conditionalities to drive reforms and aligning the scheme objectives with the larger goal of India @100 were discussed at length. The implementation of the concept of just in time, release of funds and avoiding parking of funds was also emphasised. This will enable deployment of the savings thus accrued for new schemes or expansion of ongoing schemes.
