Government Funded Public Educational Institutions and Hospitals should also be brought under ambit of Cost Audit

 

Prof. (Dr.) J.D. Agarwal, Chairman, Indian Institute of Finance has welcomed the government’s decision for the cost audit of real estate companies, hospitals and educational institutions to drive in transparency and to keep a check on their costing.

 

 

According to him, it would provide a lot of relief to the users of the services as some of these organizations have been charging far above the cost incurred by them. A reasonable amount of surplus is justified feels, Prof. Agarwal. The government order to maintain the cost records by these institutions would help these institutions as well to fix up the pricing.

 

However, Prof. Agarwal strongly feels the order to be applied only in case of private educational institutions and hospitals is against the tenet of level playing field. The Government financed educational institutions like IIMs, IITs as well as hospitals including building organizations like NBCC, HUDCO should also be brought in ambit of cost Audit and should maintain cost records, as these institutions are financed by public funds collected from public vide direct and indirect taxes.

 

Dr. Agarwal reiterates that there is all the more reason to maintain the cost records by these institutions as they are given free land, grant-in-aid for building infrastructure and finances for planned and non-planned expenditures out of the treasury i.e public funds, besides enjoying the government patronage. Some of these institutions have emerged to be quasi monopolies.

 

Dr. Agarwal strongly feels that no public institutions should to be allowed to charge extravagantly for services rendered by them when they are funded by the government from the taxes collected from people.

 

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