The Finance & Accounts Division is responsible for the following activities:

• Collection of Revenue Receipts on behalf of the University,
•  Payments to staff members,
•  Payments to outside parties for supply of material and service rendered,
• Preparation of Budget Estimates, Review of Receipts and Expenditure to facilitate the Management Information System with periodic inputs,
• Preparation of Annual Accounts,
• Maintenance of Provident Fund and Pension Fund Accounts,
• Payment of pension benefits,
• Investment of funds to generate additional resources for the organisation,
• Internal audit of accounts of the Regional/ Study Centres, Divisions and Schools,
• Coordination with the Statutory Auditors for conducting Statutory Audit by DGACR and processing of Audit Reports,
• Management of the Funds of the Projects sponsored by outside organisations/government bodies, and
• Maintenance of Employees Welfare Fund Accounts.

IGNOU is funded by Grant-in-aid from the MHRD in respect of developmental activities under Plan and internal receipts on account of fee from students, sale of print material/ prospectus and forms etc. The funding is made under two categories viz. Plan & Non-Plan. Under Plan, developmental schemes and programmes are covered, and financed by Grant- in-aid from MHRD, while under Non-Plan, the maintenance expenditure in respect of the completed activities is met out of internal resources. It has been noticed that right from launching its first academic programmes in 1986-87 the internal income of the organisation has registered continuous growth. On the other hand it has been able to restrict the expenditure on salary to an appreciably low level. At present, more than 85% of the total income of the organisation is generated internally. The expenditure on salaries has been limited on an average to 30 per cent of the total expenditure. The details of Financial revised estimates for 2009-10 as approved by BOM/ MHRD are as under :

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    (Rs. in crores)

The Finance Officer is the Secretary of the Finance Committee which exercises general supervision over the finances of the University, gives directions and lays down limits for various categories of the expenditure. Regional Centres are financed by quarterly grants from the Hqrs. To provide better support services to the students, the financial operations have been decentralised to Regional Centres. To extend IGNOU programmes to the developing countries and to earn foreign exchange for the country, IGNOU has taken a major initiative in launching academic programmes in the Third World Countries.

One of the objectives of the Organisation is to achieve sufficiency in financial matters as early as possible.  The sufficiency has been achieved to full extent at present in respect of maintenance expenditure (Non-Plan).  F&A Division facilitates the Management Information System with periodic inputs; investing funds to generate additional revenues for the Organisation; manages funds of the projects sponsered by other organisations, agencies & prepare Annual A/c of the University, PF & projects.