Controller General of Accounts

The Controller General of Accounts (CGA) is the head of the accounting organisation of the civil Ministries of the Union Government, placed in the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, since the departmentalisation of Union accounts took effect on 1 March 1976. Rule 2(q) of the Central Government Account (Receipts and Payments) Rules, 2022 describes the office as the “Principal Adviser on the accounting matters to the Government” and makes it responsible for the monthly and annual accounts of the Union and for the rules on custody, payment into and withdrawal of money from the Government Account.

For a central government employee or pensioner, the CGA is the authority behind the payment, not the entitlement. The Department of Expenditure fixes pay and dearness allowance; the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare writes the pension rules; the CGA’s organisation turns both into money in a bank account. A Pay and Accounts Office under the CGA checks every pay bill of a civil Ministry and passes it within three working days under CGA OM No. TA-2-01002/1/2026-TA-CGA/(e-20290)/209 dated 12 June 2026, and the Central Pension Accounting Office, also under the CGA, has authorised the paying bank on central civil pensions paid through authorised banks since 1 January 1990, under Rule 29(3) of the 2022 Rules.

The office has three sources of authority. Entry 6 of the Department of Expenditure’s allocation in the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961 gives it nine functions. The 2022 Receipts and Payments Rules give it specific powers over bank accounts, drawing officers and payment procedure. The Civil Accounts Manual, Revised Fourth Edition, 2024, which the CGA issues, sets out the working procedure of every accounts office below it.

This article covers the 1976 separation of accounts from audit, the nine functions and the statutory powers, the hierarchy from the CGA to the Pay and Accounts Office, the Indian Civil Accounts Service, the Ministries outside the CGA’s jurisdiction, the CGA’s part in salary and pension payment, PFMS, the monthly accounts, and the subjects the CGA does not decide.

Separation of accounts from audit in 1976

The CGA exists because the Union Government took the compilation of its civil accounts away from the Comptroller and Auditor General in 1976. Until then one constitutional authority both kept the accounts and audited them. Paragraph 1.1.2 of the Civil Accounts Manual, 2024 records that the first amendment to the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (Duties, Powers and Conditions of Service) Act, 1971, “coming into effect on the 1st March, 1976”, together with “subsequent notifications issued from time to time”, relieved the Comptroller and Auditor General of compiling the accounts of the central Ministries and Departments and the Union Territories.

The legal mechanism is Section 10 of the 1971 Act, whose first proviso to sub-section (1) lets the President, after consulting the Comptroller and Auditor General, relieve that office of compiling the accounts of a service. The 1976 order of the Ministry of Finance (Department of Economic Affairs), No. F.1(15)-B(AC)/76 dated 8 September 1976, was later modified in part by a notification under the same proviso, No. F.1(19)-B(R)/90 dated 31 December 1990, extended the relief to the Ministry of Finance’s pension accounts and the Ministry of Home Affairs’ freedom fighter pension accounts from financial year 1990-91; the Civil Accounts Manual reproduces it.

The staff followed the function. The CGA’s history of the Indian Civil Accounts Organisation records that the Indian Civil Accounts Service was carved out of the Indian Audit and Accounts Service, first by an Ordinance and then by the Departmentalisation of Union Accounts (Transfer of Personnel) Act, 1976, assented to by the President on 8 April 1976. “The Act was deemed to have come into force with effect from 1st March, 1976”, which is why the Indian Civil Accounts Service marks 1 March every year as Civil Accounts Day.

Two sets of accounts were left with the Comptroller and Auditor General. Paragraph 1.1.2 of the Civil Accounts Manual, 2024 names them as the accounts of the Indian Audit and Accounts Department and of the Union Territory Administration of Chandigarh, whose accounts are recorded as in the process of being departmentalised.

The split still defines the two offices. Under Article 150 of the Constitution the accounts of the Union are kept in such form as the President prescribes on the advice of the Comptroller and Auditor General. The CGA maintains the List of Major and Minor Heads of Accounts and opens a new head on that advice, under note 1 to paragraph 1.1.6 of the Civil Accounts Manual, 2024, read with Rule 79 of the General Financial Rules, 2017. The CGA compiles; the Comptroller and Auditor General audits what the CGA compiles.

The nine functions under entry 6 of the Allocation of Business Rules

The CGA’s functions are allotted by entry 6 of the Department of Expenditure’s list in the Second Schedule to the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961, headed “Matters relating to the Controller General of Accounts”. The entry has nine sub-clauses, reproduced in paragraph 1.1.4 of the Civil Accounts Manual, 2024 and on the CGA’s mandate page.

The Cabinet Secretariat’s consolidated text of the entry, as published on cabsec.gov.in, still names the Receipts and Payments Rules of 1983 in sub-clause (e). Those rules were replaced by the Central Government Account (Receipts and Payments) Rules, 2022, notified by G.S.R. 644(E) on 20 August 2022, and the CGA’s own mandate page cites the 2022 Rules. The function has not changed; the entry’s wording has not caught up.

Sub-clause (i) is the one most pensioners meet without knowing it. It is why pension disbursement through banks sits in the Ministry of Finance even though pension policy belongs to the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare, in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions.

Paragraph 1.1.6 of the Civil Accounts Manual, 2024 adds duties the entry does not spell out. The CGA liaises with the Budget Division and the Comptroller and Auditor General on accounting matters for all civil Ministries, has powers to inspect the departmentalised accounts offices, and has “the special responsibility” for revising the provisions of the General Financial Rules and the Delegation of Financial Powers Rules so far as they relate to the form and system of accounts and to the use of banks for receipts and payments.

Powers under the Receipts and Payments Rules, 2022

The Central Government Account (Receipts and Payments) Rules, 2022 turn the CGA’s general mandate into specific powers. Rule 2(q) defines the office, and a dozen later rules name the CGA as the approving, specifying or consulted authority.

The Subsidiary Instructions matter more to daily practice than the Rules. Most working procedure for receipts and payments sits in the instructions the CGA issued on 26 August 2022 under Rule 2(af), and Rule 13(13)(b) subjects the whole system to further CGA orders. A CGA Office Memorandum on bill passing or PFMS workflow therefore changes practice in every civil Pay and Accounts Office without any amendment to the Rules.

The civil accounts hierarchy from the CGA to the Pay and Accounts Office

The CGA sits at the top of a hierarchy that reaches every civil Ministry, and each level answers to two lines: the Ministry’s Secretary for administration, the CGA for accounting standards. Paragraph 1.2.1 of the Civil Accounts Manual, 2024 makes the Secretary of each Ministry the Chief Accounting Authority under Rule 70 of the General Financial Rules, 2017, discharging that function through the Financial Adviser and the Head of Accounting Organisation.

Two approvals at the base of the pyramid are reserved to the CGA. “Specific approval of the CGA is mandatory for creation or re-organisation of a new PAO”, under paragraph 1.2.5.2 of the Civil Accounts Manual, 2024, and paragraph 1.2.3(a) requires the CGA’s specific approval for any addition to a Ministry’s list of Cheque Drawing and Disbursing Officers. The CGA’s Directory of the Civil Accounts Organisation counted 827 Pay and Accounts Offices as on 1 January 2021.

Signing authority follows the same line. Paragraph 1.2.6 of the Civil Accounts Manual, 2024 records that the CGA, Additional CGA, Joint CGAs and Deputy CGAs are authorised to authenticate orders concerning the CGA’s organisation, under Ministry of Home Affairs notification No. F.23/5/78-Public dated 22 September 1978.

The CGA’s own headquarters is divided into verticals headed by Joint CGAs, as the office’s Who’s Who page lists them: Union Accounts, cash management and accounting policy; human resources and examinations; administration and Pay and Accounts Office coordination. The Drawing and Disbursing Officer and the Head of Office at the bottom of the pyramid never deal with the CGA directly; they deal with a PAO applying the CGA’s rules.

Indian Civil Accounts Service and the CGA’s cadre

The CGA is the cadre-controlling authority of the Indian Civil Accounts Service, the Group A service that staffs the senior posts of the civil accounts organisation. Paragraph 1.1.5 of the Civil Accounts Manual, 2024 records that the Indian Civil Accounts Service and the Central Civil Accounts Service were formed with their own service rules and under the CGA’s cadre control to discharge the entry 6 functions.

The service is “primarily responsible for budgeting, expenditure control and accounting in the Civil Ministries”, in the words of the same paragraph. Its officers carry a dual reporting line: to the Ministry’s Secretary as Chief Accounting Authority, through the Financial Adviser, and to the CGA, “on whose behalf they discharge the allocated functions in the line Ministries”. An officer posted as Chief Controller of Accounts in a Ministry is thus the Ministry’s accounts head and the CGA’s representative at once.

Sub-clauses (g) and (h) of entry 6 extend the CGA’s cadre role below Group A, to Group B officers and Group C staff of the Central Civil Accounts Offices. The CGA’s website carries an examinations section for these grades. Training sits with the Institute of Government Accounts and Finance, which the CGA describes as its training arm, with regional centres at Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai and Aizawl; it trains Indian Civil Accounts Service probationers, newly promoted Assistant Accounts Officers and Accounts Officers, and newly recruited Accountants.

The CGA’s list of former holders begins with C.S. Swaminathan of the 1950 batch, who held office from 5 November 1976 to 30 June 1977, and the incumbent, T.C.A. Kalyani, is a 1991-batch officer of the Indian Civil Accounts Service. Cadre review of the service follows the Department of Personnel and Training procedure that applies to every organised Group A service.

Ministries outside the CGA’s jurisdiction

The CGA’s jurisdiction is the civil Ministries, and three large departments keep their own accounts. The explanation to Rule 13 of the Central Government Account (Receipts and Payments) Rules, 2022 defines “non-civil Ministries or Departments”, for the purposes of that rule, as Railways, Defence, and Posts and Telecommunications, and the Rules repeatedly carve them out.

The carve-outs reach the individual. Rule 13(4) lets a non-civil Ministry designate its own Cheque Drawing and Disbursing Officers, Rule 13(6)(b) lets it open bank accounts without CGA consultation, and Rule 27(4) leaves the pensions of Railways, Posts, Telecommunications and Defence to the procedure those Ministries prescribe. A railway employee’s pay slip, a soldier’s pension and a postal pensioner’s Pension Payment Order are therefore outside the CGA’s procedure, though all three are paid from the same Consolidated Fund of India.

State governments are a separate case. Entry 6(a) gives the CGA the general principles of government accounting and the form of accounts for “Union or State Governments”, so the List of Major and Minor Heads of Accounts the CGA maintains is common to both. The compilation of a State’s accounts remains with the Accountant General under the Comptroller and Auditor General.

The CGA and a central government salary

Every salary of a central civil employee is paid through the CGA’s system, and the CGA sets the timetable and the mode. The Drawing and Disbursing Officer prepares the pay bill; the Pay and Accounts Office pre-checks it against 18 illustrative checks in paragraph 2.16.1 of the Civil Accounts Manual, 2024 and passes it. CGA OM No. TA-2-01002/1/2026-TA-CGA/(e-20290)/209 dated 12 June 2026 fixed three working days from receipt for passing a bill, against the maximum in paragraph 2.4.1 of the Civil Accounts Manual, 2024 that it replaced.

The mode of payment is fixed by Rule 14(5) of the 2022 Receipts and Payments Rules: all payments to a government servant, including salary, “shall be made by Payment advices for direct credit to their bank accounts or Post Office Savings Bank Accounts”, subject to the availability of banking facilities or Post Offices. Cash is otherwise allowed only by relaxation, for hardship approved by the Head of Department in consultation with the Head of Accounting Organisation, or for a policy operation whose payment details are not to be disclosed. Rule 2(ah) defines a working day for salary disbursement as a day on which both the government office and the bank are open.

Rule 14(7) settles a recurring question on death: pay and allowances are drawn for the calendar day of the government servant’s death, “irrespective of the hour at which death takes place”.

The National Pension System runs on the same rails. Paragraph 7.20.2 of the Civil Accounts Manual, 2024, summarising CGA OM No. 1(7)/2003/TA/Pt file/279 dated 2 September 2008, requires the DDO to send the NPS contribution bill to the PAO by the 20th of the month and the PAO to upload the employee and Government contributions to the Central Recordkeeping Agency by the 25th. A late credit in a National Pension System account of a civil employee is traced first to that PAO upload.

The General Provident Fund ledger of an employee under the old pension scheme is also kept by the PAO, which credits interest at the rate the Department of Economic Affairs fixes. The deductions that separate gross pay from a take-home salary, recoveries for GPF, CGHS, the group insurance scheme and licence fee among them, are on the PAO’s pre-check list in paragraph 2.16.1 of the Civil Accounts Manual, 2024, so the PAO checks them before the net amount reaches the bank.

The CGA and a central civil pension

The CGA’s pension role is disbursement, and it runs through the Central Pension Accounting Office. Rule 2(h) of the 2022 Receipts and Payments Rules defines that office as “an attached office under the organisation of Controller General of Accounts”, responsible for payment and accounting of pensions through authorised banks for employees retired from the central Ministries other than Railways, Posts and Defence, and for several other groups. The office began functioning on 1 January 1990 under the CGA, headed by a Chief Controller of Accounts (Pension), under CGA unofficial note No. M-23021/1/89-MF-CGA/Pension/808 dated 29 December 1989.

Rule 27(3) of the 2022 Rules makes the CGA the authority that lays down the payment procedure, based on the departmental rules, for 11 categories. They include former Presidents and Vice-Presidents, former Members of Parliament, retired Supreme Court and High Court judges, All India Service officers from 1 April 2008, all pensioners retiring from civil Ministries, pensioners of Union Territories without Legislature and the National Capital Territory of Delhi as an interim arrangement, and freedom fighters under the Swatantrata Sainik Samman Yojana.

The path from retirement to bank credit runs through three offices. The Head of Office sends the pension papers to the Pay and Accounts Office; the PAO issues the Pension Payment Order, in electronic form with its digital signature under note 1 to Rule 29(1); and the Central Pension Accounting Office’s nominated PAO forwards it with the Special Seal Authority or as an e-PPO to the authorised bank under Rule 29(3). Rule 29(2) requires the Central Pension Accounting Office to keep a central data bank of all Pension Payment Orders issued by civil Ministries. The deadlines at each stage are in the pension sanction process timeline, and the PPO and life certificate article covers what happens after.

Two limits apply. Rule 27(5) states that pension under these rules is not admissible to government employees, other than the Armed Forces, who joined on or after 1 January 2004 and are covered by the National Pension System, and Rule 27(6) keeps the death and disability pension of NPS employees under the Central Civil Services (Implementation of National Pension System) Rules, 2021. The CGA decides how a pension is paid, never how much; the amount comes from the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021 and the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare’s orders.

PFMS, e-Bill and the digital payment platform

The Public Financial Management System (PFMS) is the CGA’s single payment and accounting platform for the Union Government. The CGA’s description records that PFMS “started during 2009” to track funds released under all Plan schemes, was extended to direct payment to beneficiaries, and now carries Pay and Accounts Office payments, receipts accounting, compilation of accounts and interfaces with State financial systems.

The CGA gives these operating figures for the platform: an interface with the treasury systems of all 28 States and the two Union Territories with Legislatures, with the core banking systems of over 300 banks including all public sector banks, the Reserve Bank of India and India Post, with the National Payments Corporation of India for Aadhaar-linked payments, and with over fifty beneficiary management systems such as PM-KISAN and MNREGASoft. Every Direct Benefit Transfer by a central Ministry passes through it. The CGA has announced a PFMS 2.0 rebuild because the 2009 architecture faces scalability limits.

The Electronic Bill (e-Bill) system, announced in the Union Budget 2022-23, was launched by the Union Finance Minister on the 46th Civil Accounts Day and lets suppliers and contractors submit claims online and track them. For government employees the same shift shows in the pay bill: the 2022 Rules define a bill as either ink-signed or digitally signed through the designated electronic payment platform, and CGA unofficial note No. Q-18001/2/2026-IAD-CGA(E-20017)/300-01 dated 11 August 2026 created Internal Audit users in PFMS to post-audit e-bills directly in the system.

Receipts run through the same platform. Rule 5(1) of the 2022 Rules requires receipts above the monetary limit the CGA specifies to be remitted electronically, and the Bharatkosh portal, whose implementation the Civil Accounts Manual, 2024 gives the Deputy Controller of Accounts in each Ministry to supervise, is the channel for non-tax receipts of the Union through the Non-Tax Receipt Portal.

Monthly and annual accounts of the Union

The CGA publishes the Union Government’s accounts every month, against an Advance Release Calendar whose dates are, in its own words, “expected dates of release and are subject to change”; the calendar records its last release as 30 April 2002. It states that the data is disseminated “on the last date of the month following the reference month except in the case of March”; March accounts, which need year-end adjustments, are released only by 31 May. If the release date falls on a holiday, the data is available not later than the following business day. The contact point named in the calendar is the Joint Controller General of Accounts (Monthly Accounts).

At year end, sub-clause (d) of entry 6 makes the CGA responsible for the annual accounts, including the Summary Civil Appropriation Accounts. Each Ministry’s Head of Accounting Organisation prepares its Appropriation Accounts, gets them audited and submits them to the CGA duly signed by the Secretary, under paragraph 1.2.3(c) of the Civil Accounts Manual, 2024, and the Principal Accounts Office prepares the Statement of Central Transactions and the material for the Union Finance Accounts under paragraph 1.2.4(b).

The CGA’s About Us page describes a companion document, the management information report titled “Accounts at a Glance”, prepared and circulated to Members of Parliament with the Appropriation Accounts (Civil) and the Union Finance Accounts. Paragraph 1.1.8 of the Civil Accounts Manual, 2024 records that government accounts are kept on a cash basis, with statements on total liabilities, contingent liabilities and financial assets appended as disclosures.

Internal audit and exchequer control

Rule 2(q) of the 2022 Receipts and Payments Rules makes the CGA “responsible for exchequer control, internal audit and for technically sound management accounting system”. The rule names three duties in one clause, and the Civil Accounts Manual, 2024 carries each into the hierarchy below the CGA.

Internal audit is run through the CGA’s Internal Audit Division, which maintains its own manuals and an audit portal, and through the internal audit wings of each Ministry’s Head of Accounting Organisation. Paragraph 1.2.3(d) of the Civil Accounts Manual, 2024 makes that officer responsible for internal inspection of the payment and accounting records of the Ministry’s subordinate formations and PAOs, and of government transaction records held in public sector and other nominated banks. The CGA also runs an Audit Para Monitoring System to track the disposal of audit observations.

Internal audit is distinct from the statutory audit of the Comptroller and Auditor General. A Pay and Accounts Office’s pre-check of a pay bill, the Internal Audit Division’s post-audit of an e-bill, and the Comptroller and Auditor General’s audit of the Appropriation Accounts are three separate controls on the same payment.

Subjects the CGA does not decide

The CGA administers the payment of pay and pension; it does not set either. A query to an accounts office about a rate or an entitlement reaches the wrong authority, because another department decides both.

The Department of Expenditure sits over the CGA: entry 6 is one of that department’s 12 operative entries, and the Subsidiary Instructions need the approval of the Secretary (Expenditure) under Rule 2(af). A dispute over the amount of dearness relief on a pension goes to the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare; a pension that has been sanctioned and not credited goes to the Central Pension Accounting Office under the CGA.

Controllers General of Accounts since 1976

The CGA’s list of former holders names 25 Controllers General from C.S. Swaminathan, who took charge on 5 November 1976, to Deepak Das, who held office from 1 August 2021 to 31 January 2022; the list does not yet carry the 26th to 28th holders, who served between February 2022 and August 2025. T.C.A. Kalyani assumed charge on 1 September 2025 as the 29th CGA. The table below is a selection from the list.

The longest tenure on the list is K. Lalit’s, of more than seven years from 1977 to 1984. The shortest was Girraj Prasad Gupta’s, one month from 1 to 31 August 2019. Before becoming CGA, T.C.A. Kalyani was Principal Chief Controller of Accounts in the Ministry of Home Affairs, according to the CGA’s announcement of her appointment.

Related Articles

• Department of Expenditure
• Pay and Accounts Office
• Central Pension Accounting Office
• Indian Civil Accounts Service
• Civil Accounts Manual
• Receipts and Payments Rules
• Public Financial Management System
• Comptroller and Auditor General
• Controller General of Defence Accounts
• Integrated Financial Adviser
• General Financial Rules
• Delegation of Financial Powers Rules
• Drawing and Disbursing Officer
• Head of Office
• Head of Department
• Last Pay Certificate
• Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare
• Department of Personnel and Training
• Central government employees in India
• Dearness allowance
• Dearness relief
• General Provident Fund
• National Pension System
• Old Pension Scheme
• Unified Pension Scheme
• Central government pension
• CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021
• Family pension
• PPO and life certificate
• Pension sanction process timeline
• Interest on delayed pension
• Swatantrata Sainik Samman Yojana
• TDS on salary
• Form 16
• Take-home salary of central government employees
• Cadre review
• Central Government Employees Group Insurance Scheme

External references

• Office of the Controller General of Accounts
• CGA: History of the Indian Civil Accounts Organisation
• CGA: Mandate
• CGA: Advance Release Calendar for the monthly accounts
• CGA: Former Controllers General of Accounts
• Allocation of Business Rules, Department of Expenditure entries (Cabinet Secretariat)
• Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance
• Central Pension Accounting Office

References

1. Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961, Second Schedule, Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure, entry 6, sub-clauses (a) to (i), “Matters relating to the Controller General of Accounts”.
2. Central Government Account (Receipts and Payments) Rules, 2022, G.S.R. 644(E) dated 20 August 2022, Rules 2(a), 2(h), 2(q), 2(af), 2(ah), 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, 14(5), 14(7), 27, 28 and 29; and the Subsidiary Instructions issued by the Controller General of Accounts on 26 August 2022.
3. Civil Accounts Manual, Revised Fourth Edition, Controller General of Accounts, 2024, paragraphs 1.1.1 to 1.1.8, 1.2.1 to 1.2.6, 2.4.1, 2.16.1 and 7.20.2.
4. Comptroller and Auditor General’s (Duties, Powers and Conditions of Service) Act, 1971, Section 10(1), first proviso; Ministry of Finance (Department of Economic Affairs) order No. F.1(15)-B(AC)/76 dated 8 September 1976; and notification No. F.1(19)-B(R)/90 dated 31 December 1990 (pension accounts from 1990-91).
5. Departmentalisation of Union Accounts (Transfer of Personnel) Act, 1976, assented to on 8 April 1976, deemed in force from 1 March 1976, as recorded in the Controller General of Accounts, History of the Indian Civil Accounts Organisation.
6. Controller General of Accounts, OM No. TA-2-01002/1/2026-TA-CGA/(e-20290)/209 dated 12 June 2026 (bills passed within three working days); OM No. 1(7)/2003/TA/Pt file/279 dated 2 September 2008 (NPS contribution upload); unofficial note No. Q-18001/2/2026-IAD-CGA(E-20017)/300-01 dated 11 August 2026 (Internal Audit users in PFMS).
7. Controller General of Accounts, unofficial note No. M-23021/1/89-MF-CGA/Pension/808 dated 29 December 1989 (Central Pension Accounting Office functioning from 1 January 1990).
8. Controller General of Accounts, Directory of the Civil Accounts Organisation as on 1 January 2021 (827 Pay and Accounts Offices); Advance Release Calendar; list of former CGAs; announcement of T.C.A. Kalyani assuming charge, 1 September 2025.
9. Ministry of Home Affairs notification No. F.23/5/78-Public dated 22 September 1978 (authentication of orders in the CGA’s organisation).