Agri Ministry Didn’t Utilise Its Increased Budget, Surrendered Rs 1 Trillion in Last 5 Years: Report
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New Delhi: The agriculture ministry in India has not fully utilised its increased budget, surrendering over Rs 1 lakh crore in the last five years, the Indian Express reported, citing a report by the ministry.
The report, titled 'Accounts at a Glance for the Year 2022-2023', reveals that the Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare surrendered Rs 21,005.13 crore out of its annual allocation of Rs 1.24 lakh crore during the last financial year (April 2022-March 2023). This is almost four times the amount surrendered by the department during the previous year 2021-22, which was Rs 5,152.6 crore of its 1.23 lakh crore allocation, the newspaper reported.
The department surrendered Rs 23,824.53 crore in 2020-21, Rs 34,517.7 crore in 2019-20, and Rs 21,043.75 crore in 2018-19.
The Standing Committee on Agriculture has urged the government to avoid this practice, pointing out that fund surrender is mainly due to less requirement in specific components. The report also notes a marginal reduction in the ministry's total allocation for the current financial year, possibly reflecting the non-utilisation of funds.
The Department of Agricultural Research and Education, which also comes under the ministry, has surrendered Rs 9 lakh of its total allocation of Rs 8,658.91 crore in 2022-23, Rs 1.81 crore in 2021-22, Rs 600 crore in 2020-21, Rs 232.62 crore in 2019-20 and Rs 7.9 crore in 2018-2019, the daily reported.
With the introduction of the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi in the fiscal year 2018-19, the collective budget of the two departments under the Agriculture Ministry witnessed an increase from Rs 54,000 crore (constituting 2.3% of the Centre’s total budget of Rs 24.42 lakh crore) in 2018-19 to Rs 1.32 lakh crore (equivalent to 3.5% of the total Rs 39.44 lakh crore in 2022-23).
The scheme has been allocated an annual budget ranging from Rs 20,000 crore to Rs 75,000 crore over the last five years. However, for the current financial year 2023-24, the government has slightly reduced the ministry’s total allocation to Rs 1.25 lakh crore from the previous year's Rs 1.32 lakh crore, potentially due to the non-utilisation of funds.
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