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Jharkhand

Report No. 2 of 2021 - State Finances, Government of Jharkhand for the year ended 31 March 2020

Date on which Report Tabled:
Wed 22 Dec, 2021
Date of sending the report to Government
Tue 14 Sep, 2021
Government Type
State
Sector Finance

Overview

The Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India on the accounts on State Finance of the Government of Jharkhand for the year ended 31 March 2020, prepared under Article 151 of the Constitution of India was submitted to the Governor of Jharkhand on 14.09.2021. The report was presented to the Legislative Assembly on 22.12.2021.

A summary of important points highlighted in the Report is indicated below:

Chapter-1 describes the basis and approach to the Report and the underlying data, provides an overview of structure of government accounts.

The State was a Revenue Surplus State since 2006-07 except the year 2009-10 and 2014-15. During 2019-20, the Revenue Surplus was ₹1,960 crore. However, this surplus has to be viewed in the light of non-contribution to the required causes by the State Government and misclassification of revenue items under capital category. Incorporating these would result in the State having a Revenue Surplus of ₹ 440.16 crore during 2019-20.

The fiscal deficit of the State was 2.45 per cent of GSDP at the end of March 2020 against the FRBM target and FFC norm of three per cent.

Paragraph 1.5.1

Chapter-2 provides a broad perspective of the finances of the State, analyses the critical changes in major fiscal aggregates relative to the previous year.

Revenue expenditure of the State constituted 85 per cent of the total expenditure of which 42.74 per cent was spent on salaries, subsidy, interest and pension payment.

Paragraph 2.4.1

Capital expenditure during 2019-20 decreased by ₹ 833 crore over the previous year due to less expenditure on social services by 11 per cent and economic service by 13 per cent.

Paragraph 2.4.3

Loans to Jharkhand State Electricity Board (JSEB) amounting to ₹ 7,222 crore continue to be depicted in the Government accounts as receivable from the Board, even though the Board was unbundled in January 2014 into separate companies. Thus, the assets of the State was inflated to the extent of ₹ 7,222 crore.

Paragraph 2.4.5

Chapter-3 is based on the Appropriation Accounts of the State and reviews of the appropriations and allocative priorities of the State Government and reports on deviations from Constitutional provisions relating to budgetary management.

Total savings of ₹ 23,984.71 crore (25.31 per cent of the total budget), during 2019-20, under the grants was indicative of improper budget estimation. Further, these grants had persistent savings of at least ₹ 6,184.28 crore during last four years.

Paragraph 3.1.1

Supplementary provisions aggregating ₹ 9,277.22 crore (99.37 per cent) obtained in 58 cases (₹ 0.50 crore or more in each case) during the year, proved unnecessary as the expenditure did not come up even to the level of the original provisions.

Paragraph 3.3.4

Excess disbursements over grants/appropriations amounting to ₹ 3,015.37 crore, pertaining to the years 2001-02 to 2017-18, are yet to be regularised by the State Legislature. Further, excess expenditure of ₹ 313.32 crore was incurred in one grant and one appropriation during 2019-20.

Paragraph 3.3.8

Chapter-4 provides comments on the quality of accounts rendered by various authorities of the State Government and issues of non-compliance with prescribed financial rules and regulations.

Labour cess amounting to ₹ 550.18 crore collected upto March 2020 was not transferred to the Labour Welfare Board (October 2020) thereby inflating the revenue surplus and understating the fiscal deficit of the State during the relevant years and represent the unaccounted liabilities of the State.

Paragraph 4.1

As on 31 March 2020, 29,358 Utilisation Certificates (UCs) amounting to ₹ 69,702.99 crore were outstanding in the State upto 2019-20 by different departments.

Paragraph 4.5

As of 31 March 2020, a huge number of DC bills (18,219) amounting to ₹ 6,444.44 crore were not submitted against the AC bills drawn up to 2019-20.

Paragraph 4.6

 

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