Delay in submission of the completion report for railway bridge works resulted in non-settlement of dues amounting to ₹120.63 crore to the State Highways Department, according to a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India for the year ending 31 March, 2019 that was tabled in the Assembly.
According to the report for the revenue and economic sectors placed in the House, the delay in reimbursement of claims in respect of 89 completed railway bridge works resulted in the blocking of State funds amounting to ₹120.63 crore. About ₹101.87 crore towards completed works and ₹18.76 crore towards incomplete works were not settled.
The report said that in the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, shortcomings in the maintenance of financial statements and the release of excess grants of ₹178.18 crore during 2016-17 to 2018-19 continued despite the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) indicating inadequate compliance and absence of corrective measures for more than 10 years.
The available funds were also not utilised by the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University to achieve its objectives. There was a shortfall of 6% to 12% during 2016-17 to 2018-19 in admission of students in the constituent colleges, a shortage of laboratory equipment, vacancies in faculty posts and inadequate student-faculty ratio, which hindered the imparting of quality education to students, it pointed out.
“Machinery purchased for research were lying unused for want of adequate power supply. Delay in completion of research projects, including publication of papers, led to non-achievement of envisaged objectives. The patents were not filed properly and no system was in place to ensure collection of royalty,” the CAG said.
Non-publication of the results of research projects deprived the farming community of the benefits of the research. “There were gaps in implementation of extension activities, including training, and machinery procured for extension activities remained unutilised, leading to non-achievement of the envisaged objectives,” it added.
As for State excise, the audit noticed violations of licence conditions. The department did not monitor the violations and continued to issue and renew licences despite non-payment of brand renewal fee, non-production of pollution clearance and tourism certificates, holding of liquor beyond approved limits and non-registration of lease documents, it said.
“Tasmac short-paid VAT to the tune of ₹424.02 crore due to incorrect computation of taxable turnover. The Assessing Authority of the Commercial Tax Department did not exercise his responsibility of checking computation of turnover and tax. Even after the findings of an audit, there was short computation in the revision order,” it said.
Tasmac did not pay differential excise duty on stock to the tune of ₹13.99 crore. The amount would be higher had the company furnished details of all depots, it said.
