Need to keep harnessing e-governance capability: President

New Delhi, March 1  President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday said the country must continue to harness its e-governance capability for improving the lives of the poor and to make society more equitable and financially inclusive.

Speaking at the 40th anniversary celebrations of the Indian Civil Accounts Service on Tuesday, the president said that the government gives priority to the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode to reach out to the financially disadvantaged and excluded segment of the population. 

"This mode of direct transfer of funds to beneficiary bank accounts ensures transparency, eliminates delays and brings about a perceptible drop in corruption levels. I am confident government will on-board more welfare schemes on the PFMS (Public Financial Management System) in future," the President said here. 

He said that timely and credible financial reporting of public finances is the foremost challenge for the civil accounts service in today's world where size, scale and complexity of the economy is increasing with every passing day. 

"These fast paced developments pose policy and administrative challenges on many fronts, including on the capability and the capacity of our financial management and accounting systems to respond to the myriad needs of various stakeholders in the economy. In that context, the foremost challenge for your organization is timely and credible financial reporting of public finances, which is the backbone of an efficient and sound financial management system," he said..