The Comptroller & Auditor general (CAG) in its report for 2007-08 has rapped the Maharahstra government as the non-recommendation of works by present and former Members of Parliament from Maharashtra and non-utilisation of scheme funds by district collectors led to shortfall of Rs 204 crore in receipt of Central funds. The CAG report, tabled in the Assembly today, names noted singer Lata Mangeshkar and media personality Pritish Nandi among those whose non-recommendation of work under MPLADS led to the shortfall.
In case of Mangeshkar and Nandi, no funds were received from the Central Government during 2003-2006, the report said. ?A review of implementation of schemes revealed that Central funds were received short due to non-recommendation of works,? the report said.
CAG has cited factors like late disbursal of funds, sanctioning of inadmissible works, a large number of works lying incomplete, lacunae in work inspection and inadequacy of monitoring mechanism. In respect of 11 MPs, only Rs 28.81 crore was received by the respective district collectors during 2003-08 against their entitlement of Rs 88 crore mainly due to non-recommendation or cancellation of works, CAG said.
Moreover, CAG said test check of the records of sales tax, state excise, motor vehicle tax, stamp duty and registration fees, land revenue and other departmental offices conducted during 2007-08 revelaed underassessment, short levy and loss of revenue of Rs 1,006.26 crore in 59,100 cases. The concerned departments accepted underassessment, short levy of Rs 46.65 crore in 28,715 cases in 2007-08 and earlier years and recovered Rs 37.86 crore.
CAG has criticised the government for not setting up the Guarantee Redemption Fund to meet eventualities. Such a fund was required especially in case the statutory corporations, government companies, cooperative banks and sugar factories continue to incur losses. There is an inherent risk of invocation of government guarantees which the state would have to honour out of its finances. According to CAG, the state resorted to give guarantees to various institutions for raising resources in a big way and outstanding guarantees as on March 31, 2008 were almost 73% of the total revenue receipts and amounted to 10.7% of GSDP in the current year.