ગુજરાતી
English
Money is disappearing from Gujarat’s treasury
204 projects incomplete despite paying interest of Rs 27176 crore in 2023-24
Dilip Patel
Gandhinagar, September 12, 2015
On the last day of the monsoon session of 2025, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report for the year 2023-24 was presented in the Gujarat Legislative Assembly. Comments have been made on the funds given to 24 departments. Finance Minister Kanu Desai has failed. Financial planning has been poor. Budget expenditure control and budget planning are poor. The budget proposal also appeared far from reality. Expenditure planning was poor or weak. There were flaws in the accounting system.
Former Chief Minister Narendra Modi had repeatedly said in the Gujarat Assembly elections and Lok Sabha elections that I am the watchman of Gujarat’s treasury and will not let anyone fall into its clutches. But money is disappearing from Gujarat’s treasury.
Interest Salary
The BJP’s Bhupendra Patel government is facing rising fiscal deficit, rising expenditure on interest and pension and especially accounting anomalies and misuse of central government funds. The expenditure on interest, salary and pension has reached Rs 96,582 crore in the year 2023-24. This expenditure was Rs 79,784 crore in 2022-23. An additional Rs 16,798 crore has been spent on interest and salary.
Pension
Rs 96,582 crore was spent on salary and pension in the year 2023-24. Rs 7,743 crore remains unutilized in the nodal agency.
Interest
The state government is being buried under a mountain of debt. Rs 27,176 crore has been paid as interest in the year 2023-24. Therefore, the pace of development will be slowed down by allocating less funds next year.
Discrepancies have come to the fore in non-tax income and tax income, transfers and expenditure.
A huge amount has been borrowed.
Expenditure
The state’s expenditure in the year 2023-24 has increased by Rs 31,124 crore as compared to the previous year 2022-23.
Revenue expenditure has been 51 percent from 44 percent in the five years 2019-2024. Which shows the inefficiency and wasteful expenditure of the government.
An amount of Rs 7,743 crore is lying unused in the accounts of single nodal agencies.
The state government has not been able to submit the utilization certificate of Rs 4,745 crore given by the central government. Which shows the possibility of embezzlement.
Fiscal deficit
The fiscal deficit of the state in the year 2023-24 has been recorded at Rs 23,493 crore. Which is much higher than the deficit of Rs 16,846 crore of the previous year 2022-23. Expenditure has increased more than the income of the state. Gujarat’s fiscal deficit has increased by 39 percent in a single year.
Income
Capital income has decreased by Rs 10,819 crore in the year 2023-24.
The revenue surplus was Rs 1945 crore in 2019-20, which increased to Rs 33,477 crore in 2023-24.
The difference between income and expenditure has resulted in revenue surplus.
The revenue income of the Gujarat government has increased by 11.71 percent to Rs 2 lakh 22 thousand 763 crore. At the same time, the total expenditure has increased to Rs 2,47,632 crore. Thus, expenditure is much more than income.
The state’s income has increased by 11.71%. However, money has to be taken on interest. There has been a huge increase of 7.54 percent in tax income and 28.61 percent in non-tax income. The government will have to make expenditure more efficient in future and find new sources of income.
Outstanding tax
The outstanding tax recovery amount of the Gujarat government has reached Rs 72 thousand crore. The outstanding tax recovery amount is gradually increasing every year. The highest amount of Rs 40 thousand 288 crore is pending for recovery under GST, value added tax (VAT) and sales tax. Many cases are five years old or more. Pending tax recovery can be due to various reasons including court cases, bankruptcy, government loan moratorium. The pending recovery amount does not include details of electricity duty.
2.11 lakh cases of tax evasion
A total of 2.11 lakh cases were detected under stamp duty, vehicle tax as well as GST and VAT. Out of these, tax demand of Rs 1165 crore has been made in 97 thousand cases. While 1.33 lakh tax cases are still pending.
Non-profitable investments
Rs 6,253 crore has been invested in government companies and corporations, which are non-profitable and have not yielded any profit. Between 2019 and 2024, Gujarat government’s investments increased by Rs 34,835 crore, however, the return on investment is very negligible.
Embezzlement
Money has been embezzled in 183 cases. Apart from this, there has been no resolution of cases worth Rs 176.87 crore.
Huge losses
The government treasury has suffered losses worth crores of rupees due to the negligence of government officials and employees. A total of Rs 176.86 crore of government money has been wasted in 183 incidents, including theft of Rs 55 lakh in 20 government departments, loss of Rs 1.95 crore in fire accidents, damage to government property worth Rs 174.36 crore.
204 schemes incomplete
204 government development schemes are incomplete due to non-completion of work on time. Work of many government schemes is incomplete even after years. Capital expenditure amount has been saved. 204 projects have remained incomplete. More than Rs 10 crore has been spent in each of these projects. Overall, Rs 16 thousand 403 crore was saved.
Wrong provision
Supplementary provision of Rs 2414 crore was unnecessary for seven grants. The expenditure amount of Rs 204 crore exceeded Rs 10,000 crore. Rs 11344 crore was wrongly transferred from one item to another.
Out of 151 grants included in the budget, 50 percent of the amount remained unused and 13.51 percent i.e. Rs 45 thousand 154 crore budget remained unused.
353.
71 crore rupees were not returned considering it unused. In the year 2023-24, Rs 193.67 crore was spent more than required.
Assembly approval was also not taken for this expenditure.
Accounting scam
Rs 21 thousand 845 crore given by the Government of India was given to the institutions implementing the direct program. This money was managed by Finance Minister Kanu Desai, due to which the Gujarat government got into trouble.
There was an unused balance of Rs 1951 crore in the personal ledger. Similarly, grant certificates worth Rs 11 thousand 869 crore also remained unused in 24 accounts. Rs 833.30 crore is lying in the inactive loan account.
Corona
During the Corona period, the Vijay Rupani government had a 19.51 percent reduction in the balance in 2019-20. In the year 2020-21, it increased to 21.57 percent. The debt burden on the Gujarat government has increased significantly. On the other hand, the Gujarat government was also unable to pay interest of Rs 264.12 crore on some deposits. Interest-bearing loans were used for revenue expenditure, which could further worsen the financial condition of the state.
Land expenditure
The expenditure on land acquisition was also classified incorrectly.
Anganwadi
The performance of the Women and Child Development Department was poor. 2350 Anganwadis were announced to be built, but only 210 Anganwadis were actually built. Gujarat Women Economic Development Corporation. Grant of Rs 21 crore was not returned due to non-spending.
Missing amount
13 per cent of the fines collected for violation of traffic rules from 2012-13 to 2023-24 was missing. The amount of fine is to be deposited in the Gujarat Road Safety Fund. Even after depositing 87 per cent of the amount, the remaining Rs 148.80 crore was missing.
Rs 1,123.29 crore was collected as traffic fines. But only Rs 974.49 crore was deposited out of that.
The gross domestic product (GSDP) grew by 10.48% in 2023-24, but mismanagement of funds has increased.
The economic policies of the state government are not favorable to agriculture and business. (This is Google translation from Gujarati from the website)
