It is in the fitness of things that the Union Government makes allocations to State governments for development projects with the stipulation that the funds shall be utilized within a specific time-frame (usually the end of the fiscal year) and that the report of the completion of the project, the utilization of funds and the related accounts shall be submitted by the stipulated time and that any funds left unutilized shall be returned to the Centre as lapsed funds. Had this not been the standard practice, we would have seen a long trail of incomplete and pending projects much like the crores of pending cases in our courts. We would have also been witness to public funds being given out on loan while the projects languished and officials making tidy sums on the interest of these loans from public funds. The Centre’s stipulations take care of such misadventures or at least attempt to do so. However, there are allocations made by the Centre under two heads where the stipulation of lapsed funds having to be returned does not apply. One is the Special Component Fund (SCF) and the other is the Tribal Sub-plan Fund (TSF). These funds do not lapse and the unused part of the Central allocation does not have to be returned to the Centre as lapsed fund. It is retained by the State till the completion of the project. Nor can the allocation be diverted to any other head of account for any other purpose.
Obviously, there are skilled officials in the State government who are able to siphon out what is left of such development funds that do not lapse, while giving the public the impression that the funds lapsed and had to be returned to the Centre. Over the years, a huge component of residual funds from such Central allocations under the SCF and the TSF have remained in the State while the people have been given the impression that these funds had to be returned to the Centre as lapsed funds. It is naïve to imagine that the State lacks officers with the requisite mental skills to siphon out accumulated ‘lapsed funds’ that are of the order of Rs 5,000 crore according to some conservative estimates. We have an administration that has connived with the vested interest related to the siphoning out of far greater tax revenues than the sum of around Rs 5,000 crore. The quantum of imports of goods (mainly consumer durables) from the rest of India at present would be worth about 1,000 times what it was in 1971. And even if the sales tax structure had remained the same, the sales tax on about 1,000 times the value of goods (compared to 1971) should be around 1,000 times what it was in 1971. It is not even 40 times that figure. Where has the 960 times or thereabouts leaked out from our exchequer? This is a question that three successive State governments under three separate chief ministers have not been able to answer satisfactorily. Officials within the administration seem to have no compunction about looting the State exchequer to fill private coffers and those of terrorists pretending to be insurgents.
Now that the matter of using the myth of ‘lapsed funds’ returned to New Delhi to siphon out huge sums of money is known to the State Cabinet, the State government must institute an inquiry immediately to go into the latest swindle within the government and make the findings public within a month. If this does not happen, people must take recourse to the Right to Information to ask the appropriate questions about the ‘lapsed funds’ and demand satisfactory and convincing answers. This time-frame too is of one month. THE SENTINEL
Obviously, there are skilled officials in the State government who are able to siphon out what is left of such development funds that do not lapse, while giving the public the impression that the funds lapsed and had to be returned to the Centre. Over the years, a huge component of residual funds from such Central allocations under the SCF and the TSF have remained in the State while the people have been given the impression that these funds had to be returned to the Centre as lapsed funds. It is naïve to imagine that the State lacks officers with the requisite mental skills to siphon out accumulated ‘lapsed funds’ that are of the order of Rs 5,000 crore according to some conservative estimates. We have an administration that has connived with the vested interest related to the siphoning out of far greater tax revenues than the sum of around Rs 5,000 crore. The quantum of imports of goods (mainly consumer durables) from the rest of India at present would be worth about 1,000 times what it was in 1971. And even if the sales tax structure had remained the same, the sales tax on about 1,000 times the value of goods (compared to 1971) should be around 1,000 times what it was in 1971. It is not even 40 times that figure. Where has the 960 times or thereabouts leaked out from our exchequer? This is a question that three successive State governments under three separate chief ministers have not been able to answer satisfactorily. Officials within the administration seem to have no compunction about looting the State exchequer to fill private coffers and those of terrorists pretending to be insurgents.
Now that the matter of using the myth of ‘lapsed funds’ returned to New Delhi to siphon out huge sums of money is known to the State Cabinet, the State government must institute an inquiry immediately to go into the latest swindle within the government and make the findings public within a month. If this does not happen, people must take recourse to the Right to Information to ask the appropriate questions about the ‘lapsed funds’ and demand satisfactory and convincing answers. This time-frame too is of one month. THE SENTINEL
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