SHILLONG: Chief Minister Mukul Sangma on Tuesday said that due to the change of government at the Centre, the anticipated amount against the schemes booked by the State Government did not come in time resulting in ‘budgetary saving’.
The chief minister in reply to a question by Donkupar Roy (UDP) in the Assembly said that while in 2014-15the budgetary saving was Rs 5055.08 crore, in 2015-16 it was Rs 2838.09 crore. For 2016-17, the budgetary saving is yet to be assessed.
In this context, raising a question on surrender of crores of rupees by the government, Roy pointed out that it takes months for any department to prepare the budget while during the last financial year, the government had even voted for money, but could not carry on with taking up schemes in the absence of the actual release of the required amount.
The chief minister said that while preparing budget, the government books amount against the respective programmes under State Plan, Non Plan, centrally sponsored schemes and externally aided projects.
The anticipated receipts are prepared on a presumptive basis, but the releases do not come very often, the chief minister said.
“As far as 2014-15 is concerned, the new government in Delhi took time to release the fund. Moreover, the release was drastically reduced,” Sangma said.
“Hence to surrender the amount means, we do not have money, so we do not have the sanction,” the chief minister added.
