BHUBANESWAR: More than Rs 2.36 lakh crore remaining unspent or surrendered across departments over five years has raised concern over the quality of budget estimates and the state’s ability to utilise public funds.
The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on State Finances for the year 2024-25 has found persistent under-utilisation of funds and substantial gap between budget provisions and actual expenditure from 2020-21 to 2024-25.
The state’s total budget increased 71.64 per cent during the period but savings (unutilised funds) ranged between 17.70 per cent and 25.98 per cent of the total provision, it pointed out.
In 2024-25, against a total budget provision of Rs 2.88 lakh crore, the state could utilise Rs 2.32 lakh crore, leaving Rs 56,156 crore or nearly one-fifth of the total budget unspent. Of this, Rs 2,815.91 crore was not surrendered by departments.
The original budget for 2020-21 was Rs 1,55,963 crore, which increased to Rs 1,67,663.27 crore with the addition of supplementary budget of Rs 11,700 crore. However, the revised estimate was Rs 1,35,000 crore while the actual expenditure in the fiscal was Rs 1,24,109 crore, leaving an untilised amount of Rs 43,554 crore.
Similar was the situation in 2021-22. The budget estimate was Rs 1,75,890 crore but the total budget swelled up to Rs 1,95,723.37 crore after addition of Rs 19,833.13 crore through supplementary budget. The revised estimate for this fiscal was Rs 1,64,999 crore but the government could utilise Rs 1,58,017 crore, leaving Rs 39,596 crore unspent balance.
In 2022-23, the original budget was Rs 2,06,876 crore. With a supplementary of Rs 16,800 crore, the total budget increased to Rs 2,23,676.35 crore. After revision, the budget size was slashed by Rs 23,676.35 crore to Rs 2,00,000 crore. However, the actual expenditure during the fiscal was Rs 1,84,081 crore, leaving an unspent balance of Rs 39,596 crore.
The unspent balance increased substantially to Rs 59,856 crore in 2023-24 and Rs 56,156 crore in 2024-25. The budget size of the two financial years was Rs 2,39,353 crore and Rs 2,75,614 crore respectively. The total budget size increased to Rs 2,67,553.48 crore and Rs 2,87,769.60 crore with addition of supplementary provisions. While the revised estimates were Rs 2,30,000 crore and Rs 2,65,000 crore respectively, the actual expenditure was Rs 2,07,697 crore and Rs 2,31,613 crore for the respective years.
The audit said persistent savings point to weaknesses in budget formulation, fund utilisation and implementation capacity. It emphasised that efficient management of revenues needs to be matched by effective public expenditure.
“These deviations indicated systemic weaknesses in budget formulation, non-assessment of actual requirements, unrealistic budgeting, lapses in monitoring and execution, leading to inefficient utilisation of available resources,” the CAG remarked.