New Delhi, June 21: J&K Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather today said the state had prepared a roadmap to complete the migration of government accounts from cash to accrual-based accounting by March 2015.
 Speaking at a day-long national conference on accrual-based financial reporting at New Delhi today,   the finance minister gave a PowerPoint presentation on the “achievements J&K has made in migrating to accrual-based accounting.”
 He said the J&K had made a “spectacular headway” in this regard though the process was started only in January 2010.  
 Rather said the State Public Sector undertakings had migrated to accrual-based accounting whereas the Municipal Corporations and Urban Local bodies (ULBS) in Jammu and Srinagar had made “appreciable progress” in this regard.
 “The corporations have appointed consultants for planning the migration process as per the migration architecture provided by GASAB,” he said, adding that the migration of accounts in government departments had been started on pilot study basis in a few selected divisions in R&B and PHE departments.
 The conference, according to an official statement, was inaugurated by Union Finance Minister   Pranab Mukherjee and attended among others by Comptroller and Auditor General of India, Finance Ministers and Finance Secretaries of all the states of the country.
 The Union Finance Minister while “appreciating” the presentation by Rather, said, “this presentation would be circulated among all the states as a roadmap for migration from cash to accrual based accounting.”
 The State FM said that being a new idea, it required a political commitment, administrative planning and financial resources. “The Comptroller and Auditor General must also share best practices from different parts of the country to make this exercise meaningful,” he said.  
 Rather also sought financial support from the Central Government to meet expenditure for implementing ‘migration plan’ as the state “has to engage consultants to train huge accounts personnel in various government offices.”
 “Since migration from cash to accrual based accounting is the biggest financial reform, national and state level forums would need to be created and institutional mechanism set-up to provide leadership, undertake administrative changes with full commitment to financial resources,” he added.
 Explaining the contours of the strategy adopted by the State Government for switching over to the new regime,   he said four major initiatives had been taken which included setting up of Task Force at the State level in selected departments, technical preparedness to train accounting staff, administrative preparedness and testing the system on pilot basis in PSUs and the departments of Housing and Urban Development and all Municipal Bodies.
 He said the State Government undertook a concept sharing programme in the form of workshops at the district and other levels in the State administration to make the accounts personnel familiar with the accrual based accounting and to address concerns thereof.
 Rather thanked the Union Finance Minister and CAG for organising the conference. He also sought guidance and support from the GASB secretariat in the process of appointing a State Level Consultant to oversee the migration project.

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