DMK-appointed Tamil Nadu Task Force identifies Rs 2,000 cr unutilised funds

Finance Minister P T R Palanivel Thiaga Rajan said several thousand crore rupees will be remitted back to the government account in the next few months

A Special Task Force constituted by the new DMK government has identified funds worth Rs 1,946.31 crore unutilised by various district administrations, departments and agencies that can be immediately remitted back to the treasury, Finance Minister P T R Palanivel Thiaga Rajan said on Monday.

To ensure that funds do not remain idle, Thiaga Rajan said, the state government was putting in place a State Level Public Financial Management System (PFMS) mechanism to track the flow of funds till they reach beneficiaries for schemes implemented by government agencies.

Addressing a press conference on Public Finance Management at the Secretariat, the Finance Minister said the government has found several discrepancies in the disbursement of Old Age Pension (OAP) and other welfare schemes where benefits are still being rolled out for people who are dead.

He also said the Data Purity project being undertaken by the Information Technology Department and Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency will help the government channelise its social welfare schemes and ensure that it reaches the deserving.

“The Rs 2,000 crore that can be remitted back to the treasury is just a trailer…I don’t want to commit any amount but I am sure several thousand crore rupees will be remitted back to the government account in the next few months as the Task Force continues to analyse. We have extended the Task Force’s tenure till March 31, 2022,” Thiaga Rajan said.

Through the measures, the Finance Minister who was a top banker before taking the plunge in politics said the government’s intention is to “improve the process” and bring “discipline” to the system of the utilisation of funds. In response to a question, the minister said he will discuss with Chief Minister M K Stalin on utilising the Rs 2,000 crore that will be remitted back to the treasury.

Thiaga Rajan said he was in “regular touch” with members of the Economic Advisory Council to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and get inputs from them on a “day-to-day” and “project to project” basis.

“The committee’s suggestions on the scheme to tackle learning loss among students was adhered to and implemented. The Chief Minister has also chaired two meetings and we continue to engage with them,” he said. Former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan, former CEA Arvind Subramanian, Nobel Laureate Esther Duflo, economist Jean Druze, and former Union Finance Secretary S Narayan are members of the committee.

The minister said beneficiary-linked databases of major government programmes like the Public Distribution System (PDS) and Old Age Pension (OAP) are being analysed by the TNeGA. He said the government has found that people who have died are also getting OAP and that the new approach to be followed by the government will eliminate such possibilities.

“There are many who are waiting to get OAP. They deserve OAP and we can include them easily by removing persons who have died but continuing to get OAP,” he said.

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