NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) needs to have better planning for improving the benchmark of expenditure, a Parliamentary Committee has said.

The comments of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, which also examines MIB, are based on the fact that the expenditure registered a little above 50 per cent at the Budgetary Estimates stage, that is, during the first two quarters of 2014-15.

MIB’s budgetary allocation for 2015-16 is for a total amount of Rs 3711.11 crore, which includes Rs 914.53 crore for Plan and Rs 2796.58 crore for Non-Plan.

The Committee noted that there was an overall increase in the size of the Budget by Rs 395.11 crore for the year 2015-16 crore compared to the budgetary support for the year 2014-15 at Budgetary Estimates stage.

A look at the financial performance of the Ministry indicates that they have been able to achieve cent per cent utilization with respect to revised estimates allocations in the year 2014-15, which the Committee described as “a healthy trend.”