Shillong, Sept 27: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Monday said the report of Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) for the year ended March 31, 2020 which reflected that Meghalaya had to surrender funds of over Rs 5,200 crore, has been misconstrued and misrepresented by the Opposition Congress.
He clarified that the surrendered amount doesn’t mean surrendering schemes or canceling ongoing projects, and this is a phenomenon which takes place every year.
According to the audit report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) for the year ended March 31, 2020 on Meghalaya’s Finances, tabled in the recently held autumn session of the state Assembly, “Out of total savings of Rs 6003.39 crore, an amount of Rs 5242.30 crore was surrendered on the last working day of March 2020. Surrender of funds on the last working day of March denied utilization of savings for other developmental purposes.” Leader of Opposition and Congrss leader, Dr. Mukul Sangma had slammed the government for its inability to utilize this amount, which ultimately had to be returned to Centre.
The CM explained that there is a budget estimate that is prepared by every government and then there is an actual expenditure that takes place.
“The difference between that is what the surrender is being referred to. So it is not an actual cash surrender or scheme surrender…,” he said adding “In the past years amount of Rs 3,000, Rs 4,000 crore, Rs 2000 crore have been surrendered.”
The Chief Minister also pointed out that states like Nagaland had surrendered Rs 3,000 – 4000 crore, Manipur surrendered Rs 4,000 crore last year , Telangana surrendered 38,000 crore, UP surrendered 18,000 crore.
“So it is a normal procedure and process that takes place where the budget is prepared with aspirations, with a lot of calculation that we will be able to raise taxes and collect the amount and accordingly budgets are made,” he said.
“Based on that, budget estimates are created and when the expenditure takes place the actual expenditure may not reach to that amount simply because there are times when challenges come in for example we had COVID, where we had to lose taxes of almost about Rs. 1200 – 1500 crore. All these factors added up to it which leads to the situation where we were not able to spend as per estimates in the budget. So the difference between that is what is being referred to out here and it happen in every state in the country and it happened in the national level also. It is not as if we surrender a scheme that was already sanctioned and then we gave it back. It is a notional amount which is there in the budget which cannot be spent,” he stated.
Stating that it is the CAG’s work to bring out these aspects, Sangma said, “They are bringing out in every state governments and it is happening in Meghalaya also, before and many years. Therefore, it is not an issue or situation where it is very unique to Meghalaya. As I said, in every state in the North East it happens. Last year, Assam had to similarly surrendered Rs 30,000 plus crores, Telangana also had to surrendered that, UP had about Rs 18,000 crore So that’s the norms and that’s the way things happened.”
