Budget Formulation

Budget Formulation is the first phase of the budget cycle and evolves over several months involving individual departments, their changing requirements over key parameters – economic growth, inflation, demographic changes, etc – and revenues. The executive branch of the government normally completes this process behind closed doors and the civil society has limited access in the formulation of the budget. The non-governmental groups and the civil society groups can, however, analyse the issues that need greater emphasis in the budget and seek to include their recommendations in the budget.

Budget Enactment

Budget Enactment is the second phase of the budget cycle that occurs when the budget is discussed in the legislature and enacted into law. This is the phase that opens the budget for formal legislature discussions, public hearings, open discussions, etc. This phase gives extensive opportunity to the general public, non-governmental budget groups, legislators, special committees and media to discuss, debate, analyse and provide meaningful inputs to the budget.

Budget Execution

Budget Execution phase begins once the budget is enacted. This is a very crucial phase of the budget cycle owing to the fact that in practice, budgets are not implemented in the exact form as they were approved. Stringent measures are to be in place to ensure that the allocations do not deviate from their intended purpose. The civil society organizations can engage in some monitoring activities and advocate for the development of public expenditure tracking tools to assess the quality of spending in achieving the desired policy goals.