Guwahati: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has termed the Assam government budgetary assumptions for 2023-24 “unrealistic and overestimated,” pointing out that in several cases supplementary grants were approved where expenditure of the original allotted funds was not even done.
It also highlighted non-submission of Utilisation Certificates (UCs) and annual accounts of several autonomous councils and other bodies.
The CAG report on state finances for 2023-24, laid in the Assembly on Saturday, said the budgetary assumptions of the state government “continued to be unrealistic and overestimated” during the fiscal year, as it incurred an expenditure of Rs 1,39,449.66 crore against grants and appropriations of Rs 1,69,966.13 crore, resulting in overall savings of Rs 30,516.47 crore.
These savings stood at 17.95 per cent of total grants and appropriations made for the year.
The report said that “the savings were notional, as the funds were not actually available for expenditure”, since the actual receipts were Rs 1,38,830.79 crore against the estimated Rs 1,65,215.70 crore.
Out of the total savings, only 0.35 per cent (amounting to Rs 107.08 crore) was surrendered, which deprived the other departments from utilising the amount, indicating “poor” financial management.
In its recommendations, the CAG said the state government “may formulate a realistic Budget based on reliable assumptions of likely resource mobilisation, the assessed needs of the departments and their capacity to utilise the allocated resources so as to avoid inflated budgeting without corresponding to the available resources”.
It also said that the Finance department “may review the departments having persistent savings for realistic Budget allocation and monitoring of expenditure”.