Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta on Monday tabled a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) during the monsoon session of assembly, highlighting that the previous government under the Aam Aadmi Party spent way beyond its means leading the state into fiscal deficit.
According to the report, the national capital was in surplus of Rs 4,566 crore during the year 2022-23. However, the fiscal deficit increased consistently during 2019-20 to 2023-24 from Rs 416 crore to Rs 3,934 crore respectively.
The fiscal deficit refers to the difference between revenue and spending of the government.
“The revenue receipts decreased by 9.42 per cent and so the percentage of revenue receipts over GSDP decreased from 6.18 per cent in 2022-23 to 5.13 per cent in 2023-24,” the CAG stated.
It further added, “The continuous mismatch between receipts and expenditure indicates rising fiscal stress. The State has different sources of receipts such as State Own Tax Revenue, Non-tax Revenue, Grants-in-aid and non-debt capital receipts. The State Government’s expenditure includes expenditure on revenue account as well as capital expenditure.”
According to the report, due to pensionary liabilities of Rs 2,023 crore and the expenditure on account of the Delhi Police amounting to Rs 11,123 crore being borne by the Union Government, the Government of NCT of Delhi could register a revenue surplus of Rs 6,462 crore in 2023-24, which would have turned to revenue deficit of Rs 6,684 crore if the above two liabilities were to be borne by the state government.
It said that power subsidies constituted a significant portion, ranging from 66.96 per cent (2019-20) to 70.39 per cent (2020-21) of the total subsidies during this period.
“In the non-committed expenditure, there is an increasing trend of subsidies, which increased from Rs 3,593 crore in 2019-2020 to Rs 4,840 crore in 2023-24, from 9.06 per cent of the total revenue expenditure in 2019-20 to 9.62 per cent in 2023-24,” it added.
The report also highlighted the discrepancies in the supplementary grants which were obtained by the previous government in anticipation of additional expenditure.
“Scrutiny of Appropriation Accounts for the year 2023-24 revealed that supplementary grants amounting to Rs 1,625.43 crore, were obtained in anticipation of higher expenditure. However, the final expenditure was even less than the original grant, thereby defeating the intended purpose of the supplementary grant,” it added.
Audit further noted that in nine grants there were total savings of Rs 12,969.72 crore in which an amount of Rs 6,763.76 crore was surrendered and Rs 6,205.96 crore of total savings lapsed at the end of March 2024. Excessive savings in some departments deprive other departments of the funds which they could have utilized.
