Gopal Sharma
JAMMU, Apr 10: While the Comptroller and Auditor General of India has indicted the State Industries and Commerce Department of spending Rs 25 crore collected as rent from the Industrial units on the salaries of the SIDCO and SICOP workers, the Government has faced a burden of Rs 8340 crore for providing concessions to the Industry in the State.
The CAG has also pointed out several irregularities, mis-utilisation of funds and un-planned expenditure of public money worth crores in the department. It also charged the department with not having devised a mechanism so far to check the quality of minerals extracted and lifted by the lessees from the mine sites. The report has taken serious note of the unfruitful/ unproductive expenditure worth Rs 56.65 crore by the Industries department.
In the recently released report, it has been pointed out that non-observance of guide-lines governing packages of incentives for the industrial entrepreneurs resulted in inadmissible and irregular payment of subsidies to the extent of Rs 12.80 crore, inadmissible VAT reimbursement of Rs 26.77 crore and irregular exemption from payment of toll tax of Rs 5.58 crore. It indicated that an amount of Rs 24.74 crore realized as revenue on account of rent premium of the industrial plots/ land was ‘mis-utilised’ towards the payment of salaries and wages of the employees of SIDCO and SICOP.
A comprehensive audit of the department by CAG established that performance of the new industrial units set up under incentives packages announced by the Central Government in 2002 and the State Government in 2004 was not commensurate with the burden of fiscal concessions and subsidies borne by the Central/ State exchequer which ranged between Rs 1289.89 crore to Rs 2475.88 crore during the years 2007-08 to 2011-12.
The total employment generated by all the industrial units in the State was reported to be 1.03 lakh as of 2007-08, which had risen to 1.33 lakh at the close of 2011-12 and the 5312 industrial units, mostly from outside, registered during 2007-08 to 2011-12 claimed to have provided employment to 38,380 persons. The per capita fiscal burden for each worker claimed to have been employed by all the industrial units (beneficiary or non-beneficiary units) was between Rs 1.09 lakh and Rs 2.40 lakh per annum during the same period, clearly indicating near total Government funding of the claimed payroll costs.
It was established by CAG that the contribution of the beneficiary units under special incentives/ subsidy/ VAT concessions etc, towards State’s GSDP (Gross State Domestic Produce) was clearly less than the fiscal burden of the benefits provided to them. The total contribution towards GSDP during 2007-08 to 2011-12 by these registered manufacturing units was Rs 7149 crore while total fiscal burden of tax concessions and subsidies on the Central and State exchequer provided to the beneficiary units was to the tune of Rs 8340 crore. While State Government had to bear the burden of Rs 3118.74 crore, the Central Government nearly Rs 5221 crore.
The audit by CAG team found that due to unplanned execution and consequent non-completion/non-commissioning of five industrial estates by the department, an expenditure of Rs 56.65 crore remained unfruitful and unproductive. Further, due to non-acquisition of land for Industrial Growth Centre Samba, Rs 3661 crore advanced to the Collector remained locked up. It has been found that department has not taken any action to retrieve the land from 1329 entrepreneurs ( 35%) who had not established their industrial units after the allotment of plots of land in their favour.
The audit inspection pointed out that the geographical concentration of beneficiary units around Jammu in close proximity to the rail-heads adjoining neighbouring states of Himachal and Punjab also indicated that the implementation of State Industrial Policy 2004 has not resulted in geographically well-dispersed industrial growth within the State. It established that a total 1779 (47%) industrial units spanning total land area of 12,557 kanals were located in and around Jammu. Besides employment generation, the State Industrial policy has also failed to address the issue of balanced regional development within the State.
The team further pointed out that an amount of Rs 15 crore released for the project -National Institute of Fashion Technology remained un-utilised since 2009. It has indicated the utilisation of Central funds ranging between 44 to 93 per cent and the administrative expenditure in Handicrafts and Handloom sector as high, ranging between 83 and 93 per cent to the total expenditure. It pointed out that performance of schemes in the Handicrafts and Handloom sector was poor. The cluster projects and group approach projects under Integrated Handloom Development Scheme were not executed upto the desired level. While there was over all shortfall of nearly 29 % of manpower in the department, but at the same time shortage of technical staff like project managers and functional managers was to the tune of over 90 % in the department. The CAG survey pointed out that monitoring of training centres and evaluation of programmes had never been conducted by the Department of Industry and Commerce.
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