'Govt imposing financial discipline'

DC CORRESPONDENT 

CHENNAI, NOV 1

The state government had taken a slew of measures to bring in financial discipline in the various departments and also retrieve the Rs 2,000 crore sleeping funds that were now stuck in various departments, Minister for Finance and Human Resources Management, Palanivel Thiaga Rajan, said. 

      Addressing a press conference on Monday, he quoted Chief Minister M.K.Stalin, who had said, "our government for the people and specifically for the poor and downtrodden and everything that we undertake should benefit them. We must ensure that the benefits of schemes reach the intended beneficiaries. "

    So, the Finance Minister, following up on his announcement in the budget speech, has constituted a special task Force to reconcile, identify and access the funds of the government departments, government run societies, statutory institutions, local bodies kept outside the treasury, within a particular time frame. 

      The Special Task Force, has collected and collated information broadly under the categories of 'Available balances', 'Liabilities' and 'to account', separately under each of the closed schemes and receipt of the department. By this process, the Special Task Force has tracked a sum of ₹1946.31 crore that can be immediately remitted back to the Government Account, Thiagarajan said. 

       " It is important to put in place a mechanism to prevent the recurrence of such instances of idle non-utilisation of funds in the future Towards this end, the direct disbursal of funds from the government treasury to the ultimate beneficiaries pensioners, government servants receiving salaries, old age pensioners, recipients of scholarships and of final payments for works and supply of goods and services through the Integrated Financial and Human Resources Management System (IFHRMS) - will ensure that there is no idling of funds of a substantial portion of the budget, " he said. 

       For schemes implemented through intermediate agencies, a State Level Public Financial Management System (PFMS) will be brought in and release of scheme funds would be done only after utilisation of funds previously released. 

      The Economic Advisory Council to the Chief Minister had made several important recommendations, including the expansion of coverage under the Old age Pension scheme, tackling the issue of learning loss amongst school students due to the COVID pandemic through The Illam Thedi Kalvi programme and special packages for MSME units, he said. 

      Similarly, analysis of crop loan and jewel loan data of co-operative banks has led the unearthing of several irregularities. For instance the same person has taken multiple loans from multiple societies for the same small piece of agricultural land. 

       At some places jewel loans have been given without any jewels being pledged. All such issues will be effectively addressed by this new approach, he said.

Media: DECCAN CHRONICLE