Parliament Watch: Centre halts MGNREGS, housing funds to Bengal, vacancies on NCS portal, and more

Centre halts MGNREGS, housing funds to West Bengal over ‘misuse’

The Centre informed Parliament on Monday that it has halted the release of funds to West Bengal under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana–Gramin (PMAY-G), following the detection of financial misappropriation and violations of guidelines by the state.“In the case of West Bengal, inspection reports from central teams highlighted implementation issues such as financial misappropriation, execution of nonpermissible activities, splitting of works, and a lack of transparency and accountability,” minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary stated in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. He added that the Ministry of rural development had issued several communications to the state government seeking corrective action, but “no noticeable improvements were observed.” “Consequently, the release of funds to the state of West Bengal has been stopped since March 9, 2022, under Section 27 of the Act, due to non-compliance with Central government directives,” he said.

Off-budget borrowing

The finance ministry informed Parliament on Monday that Maharashtra recorded the highest off-budget borrowing of `13,990 crore in FY25—almost double the `7,700 crore in the previous financial year. This was followed by Karnataka and Telangana, which reported off-budget borrowings of `5,438 crore and `2,697 crore, respectively, minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. Off-budget borrowings refer to loans raised by certain state public sector undertakings, special purpose vehicles (SPVs), and similar entities, where the principal and/or interest is serviced from the state budget.

DBT led to savings

Implementation of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) and other governance reforms has led to the removal of duplicate and fake beneficiaries, and the plugging of leakages, said minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary, noting that these measures have resulted in estimated savings or benefits amounting to `4,31,138.05 crore (up to FY24).

Vacancies on NCS portal

Over 6.43 crore vacancies have been mobilised on the National Career Service portal across more than 48 lakh employers registered on the platform, Shobha Karandlaje, minister of state for labour and employment, said in response to a question in the Lok Sabha on Monday. She said over 25 MoUs have been signed with prominent companies to enhance employment opportunities.

Employment generation

India generated 17 crore jobs in the 10 years of the Modi government, a significant leap from three crore in the previous decade under UPA rule, labour and employment minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in response to a question in the Lok Sabha on Monday, citing Reserve Bank of India data.

GST evasion tops Rs 7 lakh crore in last 5 years

The government told Parliament on Tuesday that tax authorities have detected Goods and Services Tax (GST) evasion of about `7.08 lakh crore in the last five years up to the 2024–25 fiscal, including input tax credit (ITC) fraud of about `1.79 lakh crore. In the last fiscal alone, the Central GST officials detected 30,056 cases of GST evasion involving `2.23 lakh crore, minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary told the Lok Sabha in a written reply. He added that the government is taking various steps to prevent tax evasion, such as e-invoicing, GST analytics, system-flagged mismatches, and selection of returns for scrutiny and of taxpayers for audit based on various risk parameters.