Thiruvananthapuram: With the arrival of thousands of bills from local bodies in March to the treasury, the plan implementation for the financial year 2021-22 has crossed 90%. On the evening of March 30, after the Treasury was technically ‘locked up’ by stopping the process of accepting the bill, the Finance Ministry also issued an order allocating several funds to the local bodies.
With this, the project management of the local bodies has risen to the ‘record’ level described by the government and the finance minister. Exact figures on the length of the bill passing process for various projects and projects are not available till midnight of the end of the financial year. However, the available figures show that the rapid implementation of the project in the last lap led to the crossing of 90%.
At the end of February, the project performance was only 56.23%. It is clear from this that most of the bills were passed in March. Of the 1.84 lakh projects, bills worth Rs 6159.766 crore were passed through the treasury during the financial year 2021-22. The Local Government Department itself admits that about 5,000 of these bills are still in the process of being passed.
It is estimated that with these crossing the ‘finishing line’, the fund expenditure of the local bodies will be 93.01%. The plan execution increased to 95.17% in the last financial year as the bills in the queue were sanctioned after the financial year. In 2019–20, the performance was at an all-time low of 54.13%.
ഉത്തരവ് Funds Order; Followed by a treasury ban
The finance ministry, which claims to have improved the level of project management through the treasury, ‘stuck’ a few panchayats at the last minute. An order has been issued on March 30 allocating `10 crore from the General Needs Fund in the Budget 2021–22 as Gap Fund to fill the gaps of 33 economically backward panchayats. However, no bills or checks were received in the treasury on March 31.
In addition to the balance of `2.68 crore in the fund,` 7.31 crore was added and `10 crore was set apart. Many panchayats get between Rs 30,000 and Rs 1 lakh. However, the depth of the financial crisis facing the government became clear when not even checks were issued.
The director of the treasury department had directed that hard copies of bills and checks submitted online to the treasury be accepted till March 30. Nothing else was allowed. That is; The ‘door closed’ state of the treasury after the order was issued. With this, the institutions which received the gap filling fund did not get the benefit of it.
Got ∙ 319 crore; Did not get
Even more interesting is the fact that Rs 319.13 crore was allotted as carry over. On March 31, the Finance Ministry directed the state government to carry over a portion of the unspent funds in the Local Government Development Fund, Protection Fund, General Sector, Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan and Scheduled Tribes Sub-Plan.
Carry Over 20% of the funds not spent on these items. Half of this is now allowed. The rest will be paid for the 2022–23 financial year. 56.28 crore to 6 corporations, 46.68 crore to 87 municipalities, 61.74 crore to 14 district panchayats, 28.98 crore to 152 block panchayats and 125.46 crore to 941 panchayats.
In July 2021, the terms and conditions of the fund carry over were prepared and ordered. The Kerala Mission prepared the figures and submitted the information to the Finance Department in September. However, it was only on March 30 that the Finance Ministry gave the go-ahead. It is clear that the process, which has been going on for months, is aimed at preventing local bodies from reaping the benefits of the fund for the 2021–22 financial year.
Local government officials are sharing on social media the joke that if the funds for the financial year 2022-23 are given in the same manner, things will be extended to the next financial year. The intricacies of the allocation of funds to local governments give a clear picture of the deplorable state of the state.
English Summary: Funds allocated and treasury closed; the ‘magic’ of 90% spending