GUWAHATI, Aug 31 - The budgetary assumptions of the State Government in the financial year 2018-19 were not realistic, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has said, pointing out that despite carrying out an elaborate pre-budget exercise to bring about efficiency and transparency in budget formulation and execution, budgetary estimates were off the mark to a considerable extent and control over the execution and monitoring of budget inadequate.
The CAG report for the year ended March 2019 was tabled in the State Assembly today.
Significant policy initiatives of the government were not fulfilled during the year due to non-completion of the preparatory activities relating to these initiatives, it said, adding that Supplementary Grants and Appropriations were obtained without adequate justification and large amounts were expended without budgetary provision.
�Despite flagging this issue every year over the last several years, the State Government has failed to take corrective measures in this regard,� the CAG noted, adding that explanations were not provided to the Accountant General for variations in expenditure vis-�-vis allocations.
Non-submission of Utilisation Certificates (UCs) by departments, autonomous councils and development bodies etc reflected poorly on the monitoring mechanism of the State Government.
Also, non-reconciliation of receipts and expenditures reflects poorly on the internal control mechanism within the government and raises concerns relating to accuracy of accounts.
Further, savings during the year accounted for about a third of the budget but the controlling officers did not surrender the funds on time. �Departments were not cautioned against persistent savings nor were their budgets varied in accordance with their ability to absorb the allocations,� the report stated, in an obvious jibe at the Finance department.
It also noted that �indiscriminate operation of omnibus Minor Head 800 � Other Expenditure affected transparency� and �obscured proper analysis of allocative priorities and quality of expenditure�.
On the finances of the State, the CAG noted that an increase of 17.27 per cent in its revenue receipts was registered by the State government in 2018-19 compared to the previous year with significant increase in Non-Tax Revenue and higher buoyancy of the State�s own revenue than preceding four years due to implementation of the GST.
Development expenditure of the State as well as expenditure on health and education was more than that of other Special Category States.
However, the State continued to be dependent on the Central government with 62 per cent of the revenue coming from Central transfers and Grants-in-Aid, though the State continued to be non-compliant with the Indian Government Accounting Standards while handling expenditure incurred out of Grants-in-Aid.
Pointing to violation of rules of National Pension Scheme, the CAG report said the State government�s act of �short contribution� as well as �retaining the balances in current account� is �fraught with the risk of unauthorised use of funds� belonging to the employees, �thereby creating uncertainty in respect of the benefits due to the employees and avoidable future liability to the government�.
The State could achieve revenue surplus during two years out of the five-year period of 2014-19 and was successful in containing the fiscal deficit below 3 per cent of the GSDP in four out of the last five years, and had in fact a fiscal surplus of Rs 3005 crore in 2015-16.
During the five-year period, the outstanding debt of the State remained between 17.08 per cent and 18.84 per cent of the GSDP, which was consistently below the norm of 28.50 per cent of GSDP prescribed by the Assam Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, 2011.
