CAG points out increasing debts during 2022-23

Vijayawada : The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in its final audit report released for 2023-24 financial year pointed out increasing debts of the state government and found fault with showing government expenses as corporation expenses through mobilisation of funds through corporations.

The CAG observed that implementation of welfare schemes for the needy and downtrodden cannot be disputed, but the expenditure on some schemes should be in consonance with the resources of the state.

The state government has continuously witnessed revenue deficits for the past five years from 2018 to 2022-23. The public debt as well as off-budget borrowings have also increased year over year. Hence, mobilisation of funds by using corporations and utilisation them for financing welfare schemes would result in undue stress on the state exchequer and the state government would be left with few resources for infrastructure creation.

The CAG stated that due to such practices, on the other hand, authorisation of state legislature was bypassed for expenditure on these schemes for which expenditure was met through corporations, and on the other hand there was under reporting of borrowings of the state for arriving at the Net Borrowing Ceiling as per Government of India norms.

Further, CAG opined that the special margin money should also form part of the revenues of the state and should have been credited to the state consolidated fund, instead of treating the same as income of corporation. The expenditure for implmenting the welfare schemes should have been met from CFS with the approval of state legislature after voting of grants/appropriations by the state legislature and appropriations Act.