Bhubaneswar: The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) claimed, in its report tabled in the Assembly Saturday, claimed that revenue to the tune of Rs 1,066.28 crore were under assessed/short levied or lost in 2018- 19 fiscal.
The audit report stated that the test checks of 170 out of the 352 units under departments dealing with VAT, entry tax, GST, excise duty, stamp duty, registration fees, motor vehicle Tax and other non-tax receipts for 2018-19 were complete.
“Test check of records of tax and non-tax receipts revealed underassessment/ short levy/ loss of revenue aggregating to Rs 1,066.28 crore in 51,182 cases in 2018-19,” the report said.
“Irregular expenditure/payment amounting to Rs 74.21 crore in 207 cases were detected. The departments concerned accepted irregularities of Rs 0.31 crore in 149 cases pointed out in 2018-19. An amount of Rs 0.37 crore was realised in four cases pertaining to audit findings of previous years,” the report added.
The CAG report also said that the assessing authority failed to apply appropriate provisions of the Odisha Value Added Act which resulted in short levy of penalty worth Rs 446.74 lakh.
The report tried to pick holes in the planning and expenditures in the Biju Gaon Gadi Yojana (BGGY) scheme.
According to the report, detailed audit revealed several deficiencies in the programme such as inefficient planning, gaps in coordination, non-consideration of passenger footfall and inadequate incentives for operators that contributed towards lack of achievement of physical and financial targets under the scheme.
The report also talked about not imposing required royalty in the mining sector.
“Royalty worth Rs 124.26 crore was short-levied and contribution towards National Mineral Exploration Trust of Rs 2.49 crore and District Mineral Foundation fund of Rs 37.28 crore on sized coal was short realized,” the report said.
Auditor picks holes in drug supply, procurement
The CAG report on Social and General Sector claimed several irregularities in the drug procurement and supply between 2016 and 2019. The reported found several lapses on the part of Odisha State Medical Corporation Limited (OSMCL) in discharging its duties.
The audit report said that due to shortage of drug supply, the health institutions were bound to procure drugs locally at exorbitant prices, leading to loss to the exchequer.
“There was inordinate delay of five and seven months in finalisation of annual procurement plans for drugs and medical consumables and six to 17 months in respect of Equipment, Instrument and Furniture (EIF).
Delay in finalisation of procurement plan impacted the procurement process and supply of drugs and medical consumables to health institutions,” the report said.
“Out of 3,471 Purchase Orders (POs) placed for supply of drugs and medical consumables, 791 (23 per cent) POs were partially executed and 252 (7 per cent) POs were not executed at all, which led to less supply of drugs and consumables to the health institutions,” the report said.
The report also said, “Deficiencies in stock management led to expiry of 349 kinds of drugs valued at Rs 4.18 crore during April 2017 to May 2019. Expiry of drugs was due to ineffective monitoring of indents, distribution, consumption, stock position of drugs through e-Niramaya software,” the report said.
“Short supply of drugs and medical consumables by OSMCL led to the health institutions procuring these items locally incurring extra expenditure. During 2018-19, test checked health institutions had incurred extra expenditure of Rs 98.12 lakh (44 per cent) in procuring medicines worth Rs 2.24 crore,” the report said.
The report also claimed that paying pensions in the accounts of dead persons and apathy of panchayati raj institutions led to losses.
“Disbursement of old age pension in the name of dead beneficiaries, retention of funds by the Panchayat Extension Officers for years without refunding and manipulation of records resulted in suspected misappropriation of government money of Rs 10.72 lakh.”
PNN