By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, March 13: A report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has revealed short collection, loss of revenue and other irregularities amounting to Rs 82.79 crore in 11 cases concerning the state’s Forest and Environment department.
The CAG said two cases of short collection of revenue have been reported to the tune of Rs 39.56 crore while one case of loss of revenue has been reported to the tune of Rs 10.89 crore. The remaining eight cases of other irregularities entailed Rs 32.39 crore.
The department is yet to convey its acceptance of the cases and initiate action for the recovery of the amounts kept under audit objection.
According to the CAG report, which was tabled in the Assembly on the final day of the Budget session, an illustrative case with financial impact of Rs 1.18 crore has arisen due to the department’s failure to collect cess from three leases.
As per the existing arrangements, the collection of cess on minerals is done by the District Mining Officer. To ensure that cess is deposited by the lessees, the department issues “Form K” to the lessees requiring the latter to provide details of the cess paid. No transport challan is to be issued to the lessee until necessary cess payments has been completed, and the ‘District Forest Officer’ has received completed Form K.
Audit test (May-June 2023) checked the records of the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), Social Forestry & Territorial Division, Nongstoin, for the period from April 2018 to March 2023 and observed that 16 mining leases were granted upto March 2023.
Out of these, it was observed that cess amounting to Rs 1.18 crore was not collected from three lessees for certain periods.
Considering that the DFO possessed information on the transportation of limestone, the DFO should have instructed the lessees to deposit the cess due before the issuance of transport challans (Form H) against each lessee, the report said.
“However, the DFO neither directed the lessees to deposit the cess nor informed the Mining department to raise the demand for payment of cess against the lessees. The matter was communicated to the Department in August 2023, and subsequently, to the government in October 2023,” the report further stated.
To confirm whether cess was paid by the lessees, the matter was taken up by audit with the DMR in October 2023. Subsequently, in November 2023, the DMR responded that records for payment of cess by the lessees from January 4, 2019 to December 19, 2019 were not available with DMR.
Information of the same is being sought from the lease holders after which demand notices will be issued. As of March 2024, the status of payment of cess by the three lessees is yet to be intimated, the report added.