Budget session: Uttarakhand Govt tables CAG report in assembly

Chamoli (Uttarakhand) [India], March 16 (ANI): Uttarakhand Government tabled the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India in the assembly during the ongoing budget session on Wednesday.

As per the 210-page CAG report, there has been a loss of crores of revenue due to the non-imposition of fines on mining corporations. The audit pertains to years ending 31st March 2020 and 31st March 2021.
Factors like the Culture department, forest fire, old age pension, helicopter companies, failure to pay TDS, and penalties have been prominently mentioned in the CAG report.

The CAG report states that the failure of the District Mining Officers of Bageshwar and Chamoli to impose fines on illegal mining stockpiles resulted in a revenue loss of Rs1.24 crore.

The report also mentions that due to the non-imposition/under-imposition of penalties on excess storage of minor minerals, the department suffered a revenue loss of 2.72 crore.

The CAG report said that the Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority has failed to recover an amount of Rs 2.69 crores as operating charges from the helicopter companies.

Similarly, poor financial management by the Culture Department resulted in an unfruitful expenditure of Rs 57.61 lakh and the creation of liabilities of Rs 31.52 lakhs.

Uttarakhand Finance Minister Premchand Aggarwal on Wednesday presented a budget with a total income expenditure of Rs 77,407 crores for the financial year 2023-24.

Accordingly, the state’s per capita income (provisional) in the year 2020-21 has been estimated at Rs 185,761, while in the year 2021-2022, it is estimated at Rs 205,840. Earlier on March 13, the budget session of the Uttarakhand Legislative assembly began in Chamoli district’s Bhararisain, Uttarakhand.