The CAG today presented a report on Accounts of Union Government in Parliament.
Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has pulled up the Centre for "deficient" monitoring of expenditure as Utilisation Certificates were not obtained in 37,569 cases totaling expenses of Rs 51,527 crore as of March end.
The CAG today presented a report on Accounts of Union Government in Parliament.
Utilisation Certificates are the only mechanism for the ministries to verify the money has been utilised for the purpose for which it was given.
"In 26 Ministries/Departments, 37,569 UCs involving Rs 51,527.1 crore which were due on March 31, 2015 were outstanding which indicates deficient monitoring and follow-up mechanisms in the Ministries/Departments concerned," the report said.
It said that detailed analysis of expenditure on grants-in-aid released by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries and Ministry of Earth Sciences revealed deficient control mechanisms and inadequate assurance with regard to the quality of the expenditure incurred.
The CAG further said of the total receipts of Rs 7,537.88 crore towards Universal Access Levy during the year 2014-15, the Telecommunications Department transferred Rs 2,086.98 crore to the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USO Fund) which was further disbursed towards the stated objectives.
"Non-transfer of balance amount in USO Fund resulted in under-statement of the closing balance of the USO Fund by Rs 5,450.90 crore for the financial year 2014-15," said the report.
"Overall understatement of the closing balance in the USO Fund was of the order of Rs 39,133.76 crore during 2002-03 to 2014-15," it said.
As per the report, Research and Development Cess aggregating Rs 5,783.49 crore was collected during 1996-97 to 2014-15. Out of this, it noted only Rs 549.16 crore (9.50 per cent) was utilised towards the objectives of levying the said cess".
It also said the financial position of the Government in 2014-15 was characterised by an increase of 8.51 per cent in gross revenue receipts primarily on account of a substantial increase in both tax revenue receipts (9.32 per cent) and non-tax revenue receipts (6.18 per cent) over previous year.
The revenue deficit for the year 2014-15 was 2.92 per cent of GDP against 3.15 per cent of GDP in 2013-14. The deficit of 2.92 per cent was in contrast to the revenue surplus of 0.5 per cent of GDP to be achieved in 2014-15, as outlined by the Thirteenth Finance Commission.
The Fiscal Deficit for the year 2014-15 was 4.11 per cent of GDP against 4.44 per cent of GDP in 2013-14.