Public Financial Management System (PFMS)

Public Financial Management System (PFMS) is a web-based application for payment, accounting and reconciliation of Government transactions and integrates various existing standalone systems. It is an online transaction system for fund management and e-payment to implementing agencies and other beneficiaries. PFMS is a single platform for payment, accounting and reconciliation of Government transactions. Let us look in detail about the Public Financial Management System in this article.

Objectives

The objective of the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) is to establish an efficient fund flow system and expenditure network. The PFMS also provides various stakeholders with a reliable and meaningful management information system and an effective decision support system. The online payment and accounting system is being proposed through this portal for all the non-plan expenditure. The payment process in PFMS starts at Programme Division level. It moves further through Drawings and Disbursing Officer to Pay and Accounts Office for making payment directly to the bank account of the beneficiary.

Benefits under PFMC

The tracking of support is provided at the flow of funds to the lowest level of implementation.

It facilitates the beneficiaries with the online information of bank balances to provide “just in time” provision of funds to the implementing agencies.
This system facilitates with E-Payment to the ultimate beneficiaries.
The Decision Support System (DSS) that supports various decision-making levels including operational level decisions and tactical level decisions of programme managers.
The use of PFMS has made mandatory for the payment, accounting and reporting under Direct Benefit Transfer.
No payments under the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) schemes are to be processed, unless the electronic payment files for the payments that are received through the PFMS system.
The copies of sanction orders will be available in pdf format for the State users.
The utilization can be monitored by State Departments for the Schemes where Funds received from the Government of India is further transferred to Implementing Agencies (IAs) such as State Health/ Education Societies using PFMS-CBS Interface.
The PFMS progress towards the wide integrated financial management system as a comprehensive payment, receipt and accounting system.
The main purpose of the PFMS is to improve the financial management/ programme, reduce the float in the financial systems by enabling the “just in time” and also the government borrowings with the direct impact on interest cost.

Bank Interface

The PFMS-Core Banking Solution Interface expedites the online validation process of beneficiaries, and Agencies bank account details. The electronic payment files ar_e generated through PFMS for 3 modes of payments, viz. Print payment Advice (PPA), Corporate Internet Banking (CINB) and Digital Signature Certificate (DSC). PFMS–CBS interface is operational with various Public Sector Banks, Regional Rural Banks, and private sector banks. The PFMS has an interface with the India Post as well with RBI.

Agency Registration

The below following implementing Agencies can get registered on the Public Financial Management System for monitoring of bank balance funds and tracking of fund flow.

Statutory bodies
Trusts, Registered Societies
Autonomous Bodies
State Government Institutions
Local Bodies

The bank balances of these above agencies can be monitored through the PFMS after their registration on the PFMS.

Registration Process

Step 1: The CPSMS portal can be accessed by the Principal Accounts Officer (Pr.AO User) and to be registered with the portal. Step 2: Click on the” Register sanction ID Generation Users” hyperlink on the home page. Step 3: Now the user has to fill all the mandatory fields in the registration form. Step 4: Select the Principal Account Officer and Controller of Ministry from the drop-down list. Enter the designation (Accounts Officer/Sr. Accounts Officer), e-mail id and phone number. Step 5: Now, the user has to click on the “Submit” button after accepting the terms and conditions to complete the sign-up process. An SMS will be sent to the recorded number confirming the successful sign-up. Step 6: If the applicant has an account already, they can log in using the Id and Password. Note: The PFMS portal has standard rules where incomplete or wrong information is given while registering, then the system will assist the user to correct the same. Step 7: The registration of Pr. AO user is to be approved by the PFMS Office. Step 8: After getting the approval from the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) (PFMS), Pr. AO user can log in to the portal. Step 9: After login, Pr. Accounts Officer can create AAO and DH users for Pr. Accounts Office. Step 10: Now the user has to fill the following fields such as type of users, controller, first and last name, designation, e-mail id, phone number, etc. Step 11: Click on the “Submit” button after entering all the details. Note: For the registration of Pr. AO Dealing Hand user, Select type of user as Pr. AO Dealing Hand and repeat all the steps as mentioned above.