Centre asks Maharashtra for Rs 70,000 crore receipts

Mumbai: Maharashtra’s finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar has cracked the whip on government officials after the Centre warns of stopping financial aid to Maharashtra if proof of funds spent or Utilisation Certificates (UC) are not submitted.

The UCs of nearly Rs 70,000 crore are pending with the state bodies and government departments. Mr Mungantiwar said that he will take action against the officials for not submitting the certificates.

The state finance minister has convened a meeting of the finance department officials in this regards next week.

Admitting that the departments do not submit their utilisation certificates, Mr Mungantiwar said that this is affecting the flow of funds from the Centre. “I have been insisting since beginning that government departments need to submit utilisation certificates on time. But many of them do not follow the instructions. I have written eight letters so far and have now warned the departments to face serious action. We are losing funds from the Centre as the previous UCs are not submitted,” he said.

The state finance minister said that he has convened a meeting of all finance officials to get the present status of the UCs. “I have told the chief minister to initiate action against officials who are not cooperating in submitting the utilisation certificates,” he said.

A report by Comptroller and Auditor General in 2015 pointed out that UCs of Rs 71,563 crore funds given to various departments in Maharashtra for 1,14,753 works was pending. In the absence of UCs, the funds remained unspent that can be misused or diverted to some other schemes, the CAG had said.

However, Mr Mungantiwar did not agree with the Rs 70,000 crore figure. “I am not sure if the number is this big, but I have told the concerned officials to get the exact figure,” he said.