Haryana government on Wednesday launched an online portal for the release of grant-in-aid to various government departments.

An official spokesperson said with this, Haryana has become the first state in the country to take such a unique initiative and the step is in complete sync with the vision of digital India as envisaged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Launching the portal, finance minister Abhimanyu made online transaction of Rs 84.58 crore to Health Department under the National Health Mission.

Later, addressing a Press conference, Abhimanyu said that Union finance minister, Arun Jaitley has already praised Haryana for its better financial management and today the state has added a yet another chapter in it.

He said that the online system of budgetary transaction would not only further enhance transparency but also enhance working efficiency of Drawing and Disbursing Officer, Treasury Officers and officers and employees of finance department.

The minister said that in future all the government departments would have to keep a single bank account for all their transactions. He reminded that in his budget address for the Financial Year 2018-19, he had mentioned that it would be mandatory for all departments to keep the government funds in single account.

If any department desired to open more than one account, it would have to take prior permission from the Finance Department by giving complete purpose and justification.

The Central government has directed the state governments to open separate bank account for the transactions of smart city fund, Abhimanyu said. He said that the finance department has started the work to gather information about bank accounts of various departments, boards and corporations and local bodies.

All the drawing and disbursing officers (DDOs) have been asked to give this information in a prescribed format. Apart from this, all the Treasury Officers have been directed to personally gather this information from the DDOs.

The assistance of the local audit department is being taken for this purpose, Abhimanyu said adding that so far information of about Rs 7530 Crore in bank accounts of 257 units has been received.

He said that with a view to ensure the optimum utilisation of this fund, a Non- Banking Financial Company (NBFC) Haryana State Financial Services Limited (HSFL) is being set up. This company would be registered with the Reserve Bank of India so as to enable it to work as a NBFC, he added.