Parliamentary panel raps Ministry of Corporate Affairs for under-utilisation of allocated funds

NEW DELHI: Coming down hard on Ministry of Corporate Affairs for under-utilisation of allocated funds, a Parliamentary panel has asked it to spruce up its internal mechanism and immediately review budget formulation.

The ministry had not utilised 40 per cent of the total Rs 34 crore funds allocated under plan outlay during the last fiscal, Standing Committee on Finance said in its report.

"In the ongoing fiscal also, out of a highly reduced allocation of Rs 24 crore, the Ministry has been able to spend a paltry amount of Rs 5.41 crore up to August 31, 2014 raising apprehension about another round of under utilisation," it added.

At the same time the panel also noted that persistent and substantial under-utilisation had been occurring in the non-plan outlay which indicated "a basic flaw in the process of budget estimation itself in the Ministry".

Under non-plan outlay, while the budget estimate of Rs 221.28 crore for the ministry was revised to Rs 212.36 crore, the actual expenditure turned out to be Rs 208.83 crore, in the year 2013-14.

Accordingly, the panel said it expects "the Ministry to spruce up their internal mechanism, so that such vide mis-matches or divergence between the Budget Estimates, Revised Estimates and the Actual Expenditure do not recur, whether under plan or non-plan head".

Additionally, it has emphasised that the Ministry "immediately" take serious review of "their internal budget-formulation exercise and processes related thereto".

"It is high time the Ministry of Corporate Affairs puts its house in order in regard to budget formulation per se, so the recurrent under-utilisation of funds is avoided once and for all," the panel said.