NEW DELHI: The CAG report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday took exceptions that “variations were noticed in deficit figures” depicted in Budget papers for 2015-16 and recommended that the government should ensure adequate transparency and consistency in its fiscal operations.
The report said an appropriate mechanism needs to be put in place to avoid “instances of inconsistencies” in estimation and correct reporting of components of expenditure.
It said the government also needs to strengthen the process of making “underlying assumptions” for projections of receipt and expenditures in various fiscal policy statements to insulate them from “frequent changes” and to seamlessly integrate the projections in the Budget.
The report pointed out that due to absence of defined criteria for classification of expenditures as ‘grants for creation of capital assets’, there exists inconsistent and varying practices in the treatment of such expenditures.
It further said the expenditure incurred on certain components of MGNREGS, MPLAD, Indira Awas Yozana and Goods and Services Tax Network were incorrectly classified as grants for creation of capital assets.
“This resulted in understatement of effective revenue deficit to that extent,” the report said.
The official auditor further said there have been “deviation” in performance and as a result – “In Budget 2016-17, the target due to elimination of effective revenue deficit was deferred from March 2018 to March 2019 without corresponding amendment in the Act”. (AGENCIES)
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