The State’s Revenue Receipts increased from Rs 33,276 crore in 2010-11 to Rs 56,998 crore in 2014-15, registering a growth of 71 per cent, revealed a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India laid in the State Assembly on Monday.
However, it stated that the State failed to avail general performance grant of Rs 1,049.15 crore in 2014-15 due to non-fulfilment of conditions attached to the Thirteenth Finance Commission (ThFC) grants.
It said the Revenue Expenditure (RE) was 82 per cent of the total expenditure in 2014-15, with an increasing amount of Rs 5,518 crore. Similarly, the Plan Revenue Expenditure (PRE) contributed 70 per cent (Rs 3,869 crore) of the increase in Revenue Expenditure. The NPRE (Non-Plan Revenue Expenditure) as a proportion of the Revenue Expenditure, decreased from 75 per cent in 2010-11 to 63 per cent in 2014-15. Although it exceeded ThFC’s assessment by Rs 5,739 crore, it remained below the assessment made by the Government in MTFP (Rs 42,422 crore) for 2014-15 by Rs 10,163 crore.
The Public Debt receipts, increased by Rs 5,356 crore from Rs 2,290 crore to Rs 7,646 crore along with increase in capital outlay by Rs 3,319 crore. The repayment of Public Debt increased by Rs 1,818 crore (79 per cent) during the year.
The report said the State continued to maintain revenue surplus. The fiscal and primary deficit of previous year continued during 2014-15, though it was within the limits prescribed by FRBM (Amendment) Act, 2011.
The Capital Expenditure (CE) increased significantly by 43 per cent over the previous year. However, the CE was 3.56 per cent of GSDP as against State Government’s projection of 5.55 per cent for 2014-15 and less than the Budget estimates.
Regarding Government investments, it said, as of March 31, 2015, the Government had invested Rs 3,504.87 crore in Statutory Corporations, Rural Banks, Joint Stock Companies and Cooperatives. Average return on this investment was 15.58 per cent in the last five years (30.71 per cent during 2014-15) while Government paid an average interest rate of 6.09 per cent to 7.39 per cent on its borrowings during 2010-11 to 2014-2015.
On Financial Management and Budgetary Control, the report said that during 2014-15 there was an overall saving of Rs 18,774.84 crore. The savings were mainly due to non-implementation of schemes, less requirement of funds etc. Major policy initiatives in the Budget could not be implemented due to lack of prior planning. There were savings of Rs 12,506.47 crore in 14 cases under nine grants and two appropriations exceeding Rs 100 crore in each case.
Monthly expenditure during the year was highly erratic. Rush of expenditure was noticed during month of March. Several instances of 100 per cent expenditure during March were found.
Utilisation Certificates (UCs) for Rs 20,940 crore remained outstanding against 33 grantee institutions as of March 2015. The State Government had no assurance and account of utilization of this amount. Besides, UCs for Rs 8,561 crore were pending against 31 departments for submission to Central Government.
The Chief Controlling Officers did not submit Detailed Contingent Bills against the advances drawn on Abstract Contingent (AC) Bills of Rs 63.81 crore by end of the year.
A large amount of unspent balance (Rs 1,146 crore) was lying in 856 Personal Deposit (PD) Accounts and was not credited back to the Government Account.
By March 2015, labour Cess amounting to Rs 773.34 crore was lying in commercial bank accounts and was not deposited either in Consolidated Fund or Public Accounts. The collected cess, therefore, remained out of purview of legislative scrutiny. This also violates the Constitutional provisions, remarked the CAG.