The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India will undertake a “performance audit” of Ayushman Bharat, various scholarship schemes and national social assistance programmes for the weaker sections, a senior official told FE.

“The CAG will do a comprehensive performance review of these schemes to probe if there are any fund leakages, diversion, mismanagement and corruption,” the official told FE.

Besides state-level schemes, CAG takes up two-three national schemes each year for performance audit.

The Centre spends annually about Rs 10,000-15,000 crore on Ayushman Bharat, a flagship scheme, which has two components — Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) and Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs).

Also read: Windfall taxes on oil firms to fetch Rs 40,000 cr in FY23

PM-JAY, which was launched on September 23, 2018, offers Rs 5-lakh-a-year free health coverage to 10.7 crore households. About 36.2 million hospital admissions have taken place under the scheme since it was launched. The funding is shared in a 60:40 ratio between the Centre and states for the scheme.

As against the target to operationalise 1,50,000 Health & Wellness Centres for preventive & promotive healthcare across the country, 1,20,000 have been operationalised since the programme was launched in February 2018.

Similarly, the Centre spends annually Rs 10,000-11,000 crore on a host of scholarship schemes including post-matric scholarships for schedule caste (SC) students, pre-matric scholarships for SC students, PM young achievers scholarship award scheme for vibrant India and PM – YASASVI (pre-matric scholarship for OBC/ EBC/DNT) Scheme.

The Centre spends about Rs 9,000-10,000 crore per annum in National Social Assistance Progam (NSAP) except in FY21 when it spent Rs 42,443 crore to scale up assistance to women and other weaker sections to give relief during the Covid-19 outbreak.

Also read: India-UK free trade talks to gather pace after a brief lull

Under NSAP, the government implements pension schemes such as Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme, Indira Gandhi National Disability Pension Scheme and Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme for persons belonging to below-poverty-line households. Under the above schemes, the targeted beneficiaries are provided with monthly assistance ranging between Rs 200-500 depending on the age of the beneficiary and the category of the pension.