Guwahati: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India have detected a loss of revenue to the tune of Rs 986.64 crore in 931 cases due to various loopholes in the government machineries in Assam.
The audit report for the year 2017-18, which was tabled in the state Assembly on Friday has also pointed out various financial indiscipline of the state finance department.
The report contains several instances of non-levy of taxes, duties, loss of revenue, irregular exemption and other irregularities. It also contains a detailed special study on ‘Collection of Arrears of Revenue in Finance (Taxation) Department’.
During the year 2017-18, the state government had incurred an expenditure of Rs 68,586.99 crore against the total grants and appropriations of Rs 99,453.08 crore resulting in overall savings of Rs 30,866.09 crore.
The overall savings stood at 31 percent of total grants and appropriations exposing poor financial management by the state.
The CAG also detected that excess expenditure over allocation amounting to Rs 9,323.63 crore pertaining to years from 2005-06 to 2016-17 was yet to be regularised. The cases of excess expenditure over grants are in violation of the will of the legislature.
The total receipts of the state for the year 2017-18 were Rs 54,130.94 crore against Rs 49,219.81 crore in the previous year.
Of the total amount received, the state government has raised only 32 per cent through tax revenue which amounts to Rs 13,215.52 crore whereas rest of 68 per cent was received from the government of India in the form of state’s share of divisible Union taxes and grants in aid.
An arrear of Rs 252.17 crore was locked up as the warrants of arrest were not executed by the police authorities, revealed a study on collection of arrears of revenue in finance department covering the period of 2012-17.
The same study found that demands of Rs 1,700.27 crore in respect of OIL and ONGC were pending with the revision authority, i.e. the Commissioner of Taxes, since August 2015 as no time frame was fixed for disposal of revision pe-tition by the department.
On the other hand, a number of irregularities were reported in the excise department mainly due to the inaction of Superintendents of Excise (SE) in different districts.
In Kamrup, a short realization of license fees of Rs 7.83 crore was reported. Interestingly, a wrong interpretation of executive order by the department resulted in a revenue loss of Rs 1.11 crore in the district.
According report, while an amount of Rs 360.70 crore meant for 166 public welfare projects was blocked due to non-completion of execution, the state government did not discharge its statutory liability as it failed to contribute Rs 215.93 crore as the government's matching share under the National Pension Scheme.
During 2017-18, the state had achieved only one out of three fiscal targets prescribed under the Assam Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, 2011. As prescribed under the Act, the state could not attain revenue surplus and had a revenue deficit of Rs 1,350 crore.
