Inadequacies in commercial tax
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) gave a scathing account of the inadequacies of the Commercial Taxes Department (CTD) in collecting data, in its report on the revenue sector for the year ended March 31, 2016.
The Tamil Nadu Commercial Tax Manual prescribes for coordinating with other departments/agencies to obtain information and to make use of it in detecting suppression and evasion of tax. However, the CAG said, the CTD did not have any system in place for the collection of third party data.
Further, the report mentioned that the failure of the CTD to implement the GO issued by the Industries Department resulted in non-realisation of deferred tax of Rs 1,637.61 crore from January 2007 to September 2013. “The Commercial Taxes Department failed to institute a well-established system of collection of data from various work awarders in the State,” read the report. “This resulted in contract receipts escaping assessment.”
The CAG said that a separate wing, the Business Intelligence Unit (BIU) was formed for the collection of data from various sources only in August 2014. It said that the BIU did not efficiently carry out its duty as several sources of third party data remained untapped. Further, the data that was gathered was not utilised by the Assessing Authority (AA).
No TNPCB consent for thermal plants
North Chennai Thermal Power Station (NCTPS) Stage I and Tuticorin Thermal Power station (TTPS) are operating without the consent of Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, according to a report of Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
The report said that TNPCB has yet to give its consent as the two plants did not revamp existing pollution control systems like Electrostatic Precipitators (ESPs) and have not installed and connecting online continuous effluent monitoring systems with TNPCB’s server. It also stated that the thermal plants of Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) are functioning without adhering to the norms for air, water and noise pollution as the Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM) levels and carbon emissions remained high due to non-usage of clean beneficiated coal. It is learnt that 69.58 million tonnes of ash remained in the ash dyke in the three power plants which was against the norms of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
Chennai Corp also faces issues
The performance audit of Greater Chennai Corporation also wasn’t that impressive. Against the requirement of D9,228 crore for Chennai Mega City development mission, Tamil Nadu government sanctioned only D2,500 crore, thereby limiting the scope of the project. Storm-Water Drains were constructed without considering topographical, meteorological and hydrological data resulted in wasteful expenditure.
Panchayat Raj schools poor
A compliance audit of Panchayat Raj Institutions by CAG of India revealed that Panchayat Union Schools located in rural areas lacked basic infrastructure. Some observations were incomplete compound walls, dysfunctional classrooms causing classes to happen in corridors, Inadequate provision for toilets and poor kitchens.
What judicial infrastructure?
The narrowing down the gap in judge-population ratio could not be achieved even after sanction of 48 additional judge posts, as the sanctioned strength was only 1,150 as against the norm of 3,605 judges. The recommendation of 13th Finance Commission for having morning and evening special courts was not implemented. CAG report stated that 121 evening courts, proposed to be constituted in 32 districts, weren’t installed.
Tamil Nadu failed to contain revenue deficit
Tamil Nadu has not only failed to achieve the projected revenue surplus but has also failed to contain its revenue deficit within the target proposed in the budget during 2015-2016, found the audit undertaken by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) tabled in the Assembly on Wednesday.
The State’s revenue receipts stood at Rs 1,29,008 crore, constituting 10.64% of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP). The audit report mentioned that the growth of revenue receipts that showed a decreasing trend from 2011-2012 dropped to a five-year low of 5.38% during 2015-16. The poor growth rate of the State’s tax revenue and grants-in-aid were cited as reasons. The growth rate of own tax revenue of the state, which was 24.56% in 2011-2012, had declined to just 2.31% in 2015-2016.
Of the total expenditure of Rs 1,62,319 crore during 2015-16, revenue expenditure Rs 1,40,993 crore accounted for 86.86%. Out of the expenditure, 74.06% (Rs 1,04,415 crore) was incurred on the non-plan component. The committed expenditure Rs 83,817 crore stood at 64.58% of the total revenue receipts Rs 1,29,008 crore of the State during 2015-16, as against 61.54% during 2014-15. The capital expenditure of Rs 18,995 crore during the current year increased by Rs 1,192 crore (6.7%) over the previous year.
Another concern highlighted in the audit was the increase in the outstanding fiscal liabilities from Rs 1,91,847 crore during 2014-15 to Rs 2,23,030 crore during 2015-16.
The State could, however, contain the fiscal deficit as a percentage of GSDP to 2.69% during 2015-16, which was within the target of 3% of GSDP as envisaged under the TN Fiscal Responsibility Act, projections made in Medium Term Fiscal Policy and Fourteenth Finance Commission target.
Public sector losses grow to D8,000 crore, driven by TANGEDCO & STUs
Even as they registered all-time record in revenue, the State-run Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) in Tamil Nadu, especially the power and transport utilities, are continuing to pile on losses, revealed report by Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) that was tabled in the Assembly on Wednesday. Although the State PSUs had an all time record turnover of D99,850.38 crore for the year ended March 31, 2016, the losses, too, have kept on increasing.
They have posted an accumulated loss of D80,925.82 crore, the report said. This figure stood at D59,636.87 crore in 2011-12, steadily rising during the subsequent years. In total, there were 68 working PSUs and 6 non-working companies, which employed 2.91 lakh employees in total. Giving out specific details, the audit has found while 41 PSUs earned a profit of D811.27 crore, it was dwarfed by the D15,684.69 crore loss recorded by 21 companies. In particular, heavy losses were incurred by Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited (D12,756.59 crore).
D1,095 Cr loss in Co-operative sugar mills
High cost of production coupled with interest burden has led to a lossof D1,095 crore during 2013-14 to 2015-16 for the Co-operative SugarMills (CSM) leaving them financially weak, according to the report of the CAG of India on Economic Sector (for the year ended on March 2016). Tamil Nadu is the fourth largest sugar producing State in the country with an annual sugar production of 13.08 lakh metric tonnes during 2015-16 crushing season.
There are 43 sugar mills in the state of which only 16 are registered as CSMs. A loss of over D1,000 crore was recorded in only these 16 mills which contribute to 21% of total sugar production. The status of the rest remains unknown. The interest burden of the CSMs over three years rocketed to a D963 crore on borrowings making them financially weak. The report attributed the loss to, “The measures recommended for attaining financial self-sustainability were not effectively implemented... including utilisation of over aged cane for crushing, non-adherence to prescribed norms.”
City police faces shortage of vehicles & communication equipment
If you dial 100 and seek police assistance, immediate help is likely to be delayed as most of the police stations across the state don’t have four-wheelers or two-wheelers, according to a report by Comptroller and Auditor General. The modernisation of the TN Police Force has taken a hit due to the shortage of vehicles and communication equipment.
Quoting a report by Bureau of Police Research and Development, the CAG report said that mobility could be achieved only when a well-equipped police force has the ability to move the entire force at once, hence, every police station should be equipped with two four-wheelers and three two-wheelers. According to the report, 194 of 487 stations in the 10 test-checked districts do not have four-wheelers and 227 police stations do not have two-wheelers.
Expenditure of F13.37 crore
Delay over printing, storage and disposal of ‘samacheer kalvi’ textbooks has resulted in an avoidable expenditure of Rs 13.37 crore, noted the CAG report on general and social sector released on Wednesday. In 2011, the government led by late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa dropped Samacheer Kalvi (Uniform System of School Education) brought in by the DMK regime, alleging it of being substandard and promoting DMK’s agenda.
Report makes a case for delivery of citizen services
High-security number plate registration
It emphasised the need for the implementation of the High Security Registration Number Plates (HSRP) to secure owners against theft of vehicles. The amended CMV Rules in 2001 made it mandatory to fix HSRP plates for newly registered vehicles and existing vehicles.
Testing tracks
The report went on to state that the State Transport Authority’s website said 69,059 accidents took place in 2015 of which 94% were due to the fault of drivers. Hence, the CAG recommended that the Government put in place adequate testing tracks to ensure conducting of quality driving license tests by the Department.
Accident victim funds
It said the State Transport Corporation had a liability of D435.07 crore as compensation to accident victims as on March 2015. Of this, D207.72 crore was accepted by them. However, the report stated at the end of March 2016, corpus of D59.10 crore alone was available. As a result of this insufficient corpus, there was a delay in settling claims of accident victims. The CAG suggested that the Government may initiate action to increase the corpus fund every year to meet claim of accident compensation awarded to victims.
Autorickshaws
It spoke of two important points. It said steps need to be taken without further delay for the conversion of petrol driven autos into LPG ones. It said failure of the department to initiate necessary action and failure of ELCOT to finalise the tender for procurement of GPS meters for autos in Chennai metro area.
Hand-held devices
The lack of hand held devices for field staff of the Transport Department was pointed out. These devices would improve the efficiency of the enforcement work and revenue collection and would reduce the waiting time of the public in obtaining driving licenses, fitness certificates and for registration of new vehicles.
Nirbhaya funds
It said the Nirbhaya Fund set up in September 2013 for safety of women in public places was not being utilised. The report said that according to the Census of 2011, four cities — Chennai, Thiruchirapalli, Madurai and Coimbatore have a population of more than one million and therefore, qualified for utilisation of the funds under the scheme. However, TN had not set up any control rooms for monitoring public transport through GPS devices, nor had funds been sought under the Scheme.
Pollution norm
It spoke of how during the period of 2010-11 to 2014-15 indicated that Fitness Certificates were given without production of Pollution Under Control Certificate (PUCC). The report further stated that almost 20% of teh vehicles were issued FC every year without PUCC. Further, the report stated that there are about 188.08 lakh vehicles plying in the STate of which 359.83 lakh PUCCs were issued during 2014-15. However, 12.69 lakh PUCCs alone were issued, which indicated that only 3.5% of the vehicles had fulfilled the requirement of obtaining a PUCC every six months. Thus indicating that 96.5% of the vehicles plying in the State did not adhere to the mandatory provisions of obtaining emission certificates every six months.