Banking Awareness : Public Funds in India
Introduction
- The accounts for the path of various transactions in which Government plays the role of a banker is called the Public Funds in India.
- The Public Funds are also known as Public Account.
- All the Public Funds that are gotten for the sake of the Government of States or Government of India must be put away or credited to the Public Account.
- These Public Account Funds are characterized in the Article 226 (2) of the Indian Constitution.
- These Public Funds don’t have a place with the Government and must be paid back to the legal proprietor of that money.
- The banking awareness is also a very important topic in many bank exams.
Objectives
The Public Fund’s main objective is to help the public by providing different services and goods. Community services include public safety, health services, food program, insurance, children program etc.
Sources
In the public account the funds come from the following sources:
- Provident fund of Government employee
- Saving bank account of different ministries and departments.
- National small saving fund
- National Investment fund
- Contingency fund (NCCF) and National calamity
- Defense fund
- Outside agencies made Reserve fund deposit
Structure and Process
- There are 5 main accounts that come under the public fund which are Reserve fund, small saving, Remittance, Deposit and advances, Provident fund.
- The government holds the fund for managing it for their owners and it does not belong to the government.
- The fund’s owner may be anybody like government contractors, ordinary people or maybe even the government itself.
- For dealing with payments and receipts for which government has to repay the amount which is received from the owner Provident Fund, Small saving and Reserve Fund Accounts are used.
- For adjustment facilities, other advances, deposit, and remittance are used.
- The Government has to pay a certain interest on the fund deposited in important accounts like provident funds, small saving, and others with the decided rate.
- The public funds are generally managed by different principal secretaries or principal of that ministries or department.
- The fund which is created by the government is mainly out of the money of taxpayers and then for that fund, the government pays the interest using the taxpayer’s money.
Restrictions
While using these funds the restrictions are:
- For the benefit of the nation, the public funds should be only used for the public fund.
- Because the taxpayers generate the maximum number of the fund, they want to know that their money goes back for the development of the community.
- These funds aren’t used for establishing a private business or operations of public business.
Review
| Funds | Parliamentary Authorizations | Income Source | Article of Constitution |
| Public Funds | Not required | Public money other than the consolidated fund | 266(2) |
| Consolidated fund | Required prior to expenditure | Tax and Nontax revenue | 266 (1) |
| Contingency fund | Required after the expenditure | Fixed money of Rupees 500 crore | 267(1) |
Aspiring candidates preparing for upcoming bank exams should be thoroughly aware about banking awareness and all about Public Funds in India.
About the author:
With a degree in Engineering, Shankha Samanta is a content writer by profession. He is a vehement reader apart from writing and blogging along with part-time teaching. He is presently exploring all about the digital education with Byju’s-the Learning App.
Email_id: shanka.samanta@byjus.com