The CAG report said the government undertook to fund of revenue and capital expenditure using extra-budgetary resources in both the years
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has flagged the use of extra-budgetary resources for payment of food subsidy in a report tabled in Parliament on Monday for the financial year 2017-18 (FY18) and FY19.
Experts said making the books of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) public in the Budget for FY22 would go a long way in plugging this loophole. The CAG report said the government undertook to fund of revenue and capital expenditure using extra-budgetary resources in both years.
Referring to food subsidy, it said there was a carryover liability of Rs 81,303 crore of unpaid food subsidy during FY18 and then there was a fresh subsidy claim of Rs 1.16 trillion, resulting in a total pending liability for food subsidy of Rs 1.97 trillion. Against this, the government released only Rs 61,982 crore to the FCI, leaving a pending liability of Rs 1.35 trillion at the end of FY18.
It was noted that the budgeted provision of Rs 1.45 trillion for FY18 for meeting food subsidy expenses was not fully utilized and there were savings of Rs 48,228 crore at the year-end. These savings were due to a provision of a Rs 42,919 crore loan from the National Small Saving Fund (NSSF) to FCI instead of payment of food subsidy using the budgeted funds.
In the next year, FY19, along with a carry forward liability of Rs 1.35 trillion from the previous years, there was additional liability towards a food subsidy of Rs 1.2 trillion for FY19. However, despite a budgetary provision of Rs 1.69 trillion for food subsidy in the BE of FY19, only Rs 70,098 crore was released from the Budget to partly clear carryover liability of previous years.
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