State Departments in Maharashtra have only spent 42% of their allocated funds

According to official data, State Departments in Maharashtra have only spent 42 per cent of their allocated budget so far. This accounts for around Rs 1.9 lakh crore of the total expenditure while the state had allocated Rs 4.5 lakh crore in April 2019 to a wide range of its departments. 

The departments with the highest funds utilization right now are school education at 72 per cent and home at 67 per cent as per the data available. On the other hand, the departments that are seeing the lowest funds utilization are housing at 0.3 per cent, the environment at 2.3 per cent, public works (6.9 per cent) as well as food and civil supplies (4 per cent). 

State Government officials believe that these figures don’t reflect the full picture and that it doesn’t take into account the bills that have not been submitted yet or departments that use direct cheques such as public works and irrigation. Offering more clarity on the spendings, a finance official said “In absolute terms, fund utilization has increased this year. Since the budget size is larger, the percentage is lower.”

It is also worth pointing out that the state has multiple investments planned for the 2019-20 fiscal year including Rs 10,000 - 15,000 crore loan waiver promised by the Maha Vikas Aghadi as well as Rs 10,000 crore that has been set aside for untimely rains in the state.

Also Read: Monsoon Session: Opposition Protests, Demands Loan Waiver For Farmers

The Finance Department has passed a Government Resolution asking all departments not to spend on additional projects after February 1, 2020. However, state departments do have permission to spend on essentials like medicines. Further, the Maharashtra Government is reportedly not going to allocate new funds to departments that haven’t utilized their previous allocation. 

As per the Government Resolution “The aim of budgetary planning is to ensure that the state departments spend the budget allocated each month. However, departments spend the bulk of their funds in the last three months. The government resolution has been issued to control expenses which are not essential.”