Telangana’s budget is unrealistic- CAG

March 31, 2016 12:03
Telangana’s budget is unrealistic- CAG

Telangana government’s budgetary assumptions are found to be unrealistic by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India and pointed to weakness in expenditure monitoring and control.

2014-15 CAG report in the assembly said, “Several policy initiatives taken up by the government were either unfulfilled or were partially executed, primarily due to non-approval of scheme guidelines /modalities, non-commencement of works for want of administrative sanction and poor project implementation, apart from non-release of funds.”

There were several instances of budgetary misclassifications on subsidies, subvention from Central road fund etc, which indicated deficiencies in formulation of the budget.

“Unrealistic budgetary allocations resulting in substantial savings, unnecessary supplementary grants, expenditure incurred without provision and excess re-appropriations, resulting in excess provision are indications of poor budget management,” the report stated.

The CAG report was prepared on the finance and appropriation account for 10 months. “The state government’s commitment to carry out reforms is reflected in its policy initiatives announced in the Budget,” it said.

Telangana state registered a revenue surplus of Rs. 369 crore, the report indicated. This should be considered in the light of the fact that, TRS government had to work out its liability of Rs 651 crores, on account of zilla parishad PF contributions among others. The government failed to ensure that, the allocated funds were released completely.

“State outlay on education (11.57 %) in particular, was less that of the general category states (16.23 % ). The share of social sector expenditure to aggregate expenditure (34.42 %) was lower in the state, compared to other general category states (36.50 %),” the CAG said.

Not stopping there, the CAG report further found that, the urban local bodies were not in compliance with the municipal solid waste (management and handling) rules. Only 30% of solid waste was segregated at source.

“Appropriate technology was not adopted for processing of waste to minimise burden on landfill. Segregation of e-waste was not done either at source or at transfer station/ dumping yard leading to environmental hazard,” the CAG observed.

The municipal corporations at Nizamabad, Warangal, Mahbubnagar and Nalgonda were examined by CAG and its audit found that, though various programmes were implemented for providing basic infrastructure and improving conditions, de-notification was not taken up.

Implementation of several schemes, could not help from the increase of slum areas. Community utility centres and community toilets could not be constructed due to the non availability of sites.

By Phani Ch

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