From the last financial year 2017-18 to the financial year 2021-22 i.e. in the five years of the BJP-IPFT coalition government of Tripura, the amount of unspent state budget is Rs 27 thousand 329 crore 97 lakhs.
The unspent amount in the average percentage is thirty . That mean In the last five years, the Tripura government has managed to spend seventy percent of the budget.
Comptroller and Auditor General of Government of India has mentioned this information in the report released for the financial year 2021-22.
The report clearly mentions that the total budget of the state government from the financial year 2017-18 to the financial year 2021-22, was Rs 1 lakh 3 thousand 800 crore 15 lakh.
In the last five years, the state government has spent a total of 76 thousand 470 crore 18 lakh rupees. Rs 27 thousand 329 crore 97 lakh yet to spent!
In the financial year 2017-18, the budget of the state government (original and supplementary) has been allocated Rs 17 thousand 390 crore 11 lakh.
Out of this Rs 12 thousand 532 crore 41 lakh have been spent. Rs 4 thousand 857 crore 70 lakh were unspent.
In the financial year 2018-19, the total budget was Rs 17 thousand 983 crore 47 lakhs. Rs 13 thousand 956 crore 84 lakh have been spent out of this. Rs 4 thousand 26 crore 63 lakh was unspent. In the financial year 2019-20 the budget was Rs 20 thousand 493 crore 57 lakhs.
But Rs 15 thousand 447 crore 97 lakh have been spent. The amount of unspent money is Rs 5 thousand 45 crores 60 lakhs.
In the financial year 2020-21, the total budget was Rs 21 thousand 681 crore 7 lakhs. The government has been able to spend Rs 16 thousand 147 crore 77 lakh. Rs 5 thousand 493 crore 30 lakh rupees was unspent.
In the financial year 2021-22, the budget of the state government has been allocated Rs 26 thousand 251 crores 93 lakhs. Out of this Rs18 thousand 345 crores 19 lakhs have been spent. Rs 7 thousand 906 crores 74 lakhs unspent.
Naturally, many questions have arisen after the publication of this report.
The budget has been allocated year after year, but the allocated money could not be spent by the Tripura Government.
It has been repeatedly said that the government has financial constraints. On the other hand, the government has taken billions of loans. Question raising what does this type of budget and financial system mean?
On the one hand, a huge amount of the allocated budget remains unspent, on the other hand, the mountain of debt is getting bigger and bigger.
In the meantime, the new Finance Minister Pranajit Singh Roy has approved an additional allocation of Rs 3065 crore 37 lakh for the financial year 2022-23.
At the same time, in the first session of the Thirteenth Legislative Assembly, the demand for allocation of expenditure of Rs 9066 crore 56 lakh for the first four months of the financial year 2023-24 has been passed.
Now question raising , where is the unspent money? Naturally, the Auditor General of the Government of India questioned the budget of the state government and mentioned it “unrealistic”.
To put it more clearly, budget management shows that there is unspent money. But actually there is no money in the government coffers. If not, why do you need to borrow? So what people show the budget? This question also arises. The CAG report says 11 which indicates that the budget formulation process was unrealistic due to poor budgetary management.”
