The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) on Monday flagged irregularities of nearly Rs. 160 crore, including loss of revenue and under-assessment of taxes, in various departments of the Delhi government in the fiscal 2014-15.
“Test check of the records of 74 units of the Department of Trade and Taxes, State Excise, Transport and Revenue conducted during 2014-15 revealed under-assessment/short levy/loss of revenue and other irregularities involving Rs. 159.57 crore in 506 cases,” said the CAG report.
During the course of the year, the CAG said that the departments concerned accepted under-assessment and other deficiencies of Rs. 1.45 crore and recovered an amount of Rs 4.68 lakh, which were pointed out in the audit during 2014-15.
Tabled in the Delhi Assembly, the report covers the assessment of activities related to the revenue, social and economic sectors – including Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) – in addition to social, general and economic Sectors (Non-PSUs).
The CAG findings included delays ranging from five to 85 months in 44 out of 53 works carried out by the Delhi Jal Board, and operational loss of Rs. 5,022.05 crore suffered by the Delhi Transport Corporation between 2010-15
The current AAP government, led by Arvind Kejriwal, was in power in the Capital for only a small duration of the period under the CAG review
Revenue receipts
The total revenue receipts of the Delhi government in 2014-15 were Rs. 29,584.59 crore. Out of this, 92 percent was raised through tax revenue — Rs. 26,603.90 crore and non-tax revenue — Rs. 632.55 crore.
The remaining eight percent was received from the central government as grants-in-aid — Rs. 2,348.14 crore. Total revenue receipts in 2013-14 were Rs. 27,980.69 crore.
The increase in tax revenue was 2.64 percent and decrease in non-tax revenue was 4.03 percent over the previous year, the report said.
Performance Audit on System of Assessment under Value Added Tax (VAT) showed that 181 cases, each with annual gross turnover of Rs. 5 crore and above, (aggregated turnover Rs 5,546.61 crore) for 2009-10 and 2010-11, were not scrutinised and assessed and had become time-barred.
Ineffective monitoring of demand cases led to non-realisation of government dues worth Rs. 512.05 crore, including Rs. 214.98 crore due from dealers whose registrations had been cancelled.
Further, system checks were not integrated to prevent issue of refunds to the dealers whose registrations have been cancelled and assessments were done subsequently.
