Financial Service operations minimised

B.S. Sathyanarayan, the Accounts Officer of the Auroville Foundation, informed the community on 2 March about the commencement of a centralised common accounting system for the Auroville Foundation, its trusts, units and projects. Changes are to be effected in Auroville’s Financial Service (FS) and all Aurovilians are to have bank accounts and hold their money in the bank instead of in the FS account. The FS account will henceforth only be used to the value of maximum two months maintenance per person (e.g. Rs. 40,000) necessary for spending in Auroville so that no cash handling of funds need to happen from the FS. The maintenance which is generally spent within Auroville units only will be credited into the FS account (subject to the limit as earlier indicated) and any amount meant for the Aurovilians to draw cash for use for other purposes will be directly credited to their bank accounts. Banks will setup ATMs in Auroville to provide cash liquidity wherever needed to Aurovilians or others.

The FS will continue having community accounts subject to the condition that the total contributions by all members of the community will not exceed Rs. 20 lakhs in a year.