New Delhi, Mar 24 (PTI) Flagging under-utilisation of funds, a parliamentary standing committee has asked the minority affairs ministry to strengthen their monitoring mechanism for effective implementation of schemes so that budgetary allocation for 2022-23 are fully utilised.
In a report tabled in Lok Sabha Thursday, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment said that out of the allocation of Rs 4,700 crore (2019-20) and Rs 5,029 crore (2020-21), the ministry could spend only Rs 4,505.10 crore and Rs 3,998.57 crore, respectively.
In the current financial year, out of the allocation of Rs 4,810.77 crore, the actual expenditure has nosedived to as low as Rs 2,342.23 crore till February 16, 2022, it said.
It noted that the ministry told the committee that the reasons for the low utilisation were — the mandatory cut imposed by the ministry due to the COVID-19 situation at the revised estimate (RE) stage in 2020-21, and the expenditure on three scholarship schemes, which constitutes 50 per cent of the total RE allocation, being incurred largely in the last quarter for a financial year.
“The Committee finds it far from convincing,” it said.
“Further they are sad to find that the Ministry has not been able to spend even 50 per cent of the allocated Budget of 2021-22 in most of the schemes administered by Ministry of Minority Affairs,” it said.
In this backdrop, the committee observed that full utilisation of the budget sanctioned for a financial year has seldom happened, as the ministry was not able to spend the funds approved at the RE stage.
Had the Ministry of Finance allocated the budgetary requirement as proposed by the Ministry of Minority Affairs and not imposed cut at RE stage, the funds would have remained idle, the committee said.
On the scholarship segment, the committee said that for some category funds can be given in the first quarter itself, while it also suggested timely processing of applications in other categories.
This would lead to less rush in the last quarter, it said.
From the information submitted to them on the Demands for Grants for 2022-23, the committee noted that there is a significant reduction in budgetary allocation to the ministry as Rs 5020.50 crore has been allocated against Rs 8151.92 crore proposed by them.
“As the amount seems insufficient, the Committee has been apprised that in case of shortfall in the Budgetary allocation, the Ministry will seek additional funds at RE stage,” it said.
The committee also noted that during 2020-21, the ministry surrendered Rs 1,030.43 crore out of the funds allocated for various schemes due to less receipt or non-receipt of adequate and viable proposals.
Therefore, the committee said it feels that the same trend must not happen for 2022-23 otherwise the ministry, instead of requiring additional funds, will have to go for a downsizing of budget at the RE stage.
The committee, however, said it strongly believes that the reduction in allocation at succeeding stages should be avoided as the funds sought by the ministry must have been assessed as per actual requirement and they may face difficulty in the realisation of objectives of scheme with a reduced budget.
The committee would, therefore, like the ministry to ensure that the proposals submitted by them to the Ministry of Finance are backed by strong data-based analysis and requisite gap analysis. PTI UZM UZM TIR TIR
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