Andhra Pradesh Finance minister Buggana Rajendranath- The New Indian Express

By Express News Service

VIJAYAWADA: Rubbishing the corruption charges made by TDP against the State government with regard to the expenditure of Rs 48,000 crore in 2020-21, Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath said as the Comprehensive Financial Management System (CFMS) was not institutionalised properly, book adjustment transactions were shown as special bills.

Refuting the allegation of TDP leader Yanamala Ramakrishnudu that Rs 48,000 crore went into the hands of ‘elders’ in the State government, he said the total sum was not real expenditure and only a book adjustment transaction by the end of last fiscal. 

In the CFMS, there are bill payment heads pertaining to various departments, but there is no special bills head. To identify the book adjustment transactions in the CFMS, ‘special bills’ term is mentioned. Except that, there is no special bills head. In fact, the chaotic and erratic creation of the CFMS during the previous TDP regime was the cause of all the confusion, he explained.

As the treasury department officials have no access to make book adjustment transactions in the CFMS at present, the Finance Department had authorised the CFMS Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to exercise the power. The entire process is held as per the guidelines of finance and treasury departments, he asserted.

In a release on Sunday, Buggana said the finance secretary wrote a detailed letter in response to queries raised by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) explaining the same. Prior to the CFMS, treasury officials used to do book adjustment transactions manually at the end of the financial year. However, after rolling out the CFMS, the same power was given to the CFMS CEO and the same was conveyed to CAG by the finance secretary in writing, he clarified.

When no cash transactions took place in the whole process, where was the scope for corruption, Buggana asked. As per the AP Finance Code 271 (4) Article, treasury officials used to mark the unspent funds lapsed in PD accounts by the end of the fiscal through book adjustment transactions.

As the treasury officials have no access to make book adjustment transactions in the CFMS now, the CEO was given the power to mark the leftover funds lapsed as a whole, he said. He further said the system was not introduced by our government.

In 2018 itself, the CFMS CEO was authorised to mark the remaining funds of different departments lapse. The same process was followed in 2018-19 and 2019-20. In 2018-19, the previous TDP regime showed 98,049 book adjustment transactions as special bills, while the YSRC government showed 54,183 transactions in 2020-21. There is no transaction of money in such bills, he said.

Seeking to know whether misuse/corruption of Rs 48,000 crore in the budget of State government was possible, he said despite knowing the fact, TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu was trying to attribute it to the YSRC government.

Taking a dig at the TDP leaders for their remark that the YSRC government was inefficient in managing finances, Buggana said the present government spent 90.50 per cent and 96.02 per cent of budgetary estimates in 2020-21 and 2021-22, compared to 86.28 per cent spent in 2018-19 by the previous regime.

Asserting that the efforts of the YSRC government resulted in rise in Central grants to the State, he said despite being part of the previous NDA government at the Centre, the TDP regime could not get the required grants to the State for development.

Total expenditure in 2020-21 – Rs 2,03,448 crore

Amount spent

• Rs 66,470 crore Salaries of government employees and pensioners 

• Rs 33,753 crore Debt servicing 

• Rs 65,447 crore DBT and non-DBT schemes 

• Rs 37,774 crore Remaining expenditure 

With a capital expenditure of Rs 18,145 crore, Nadu-Nedu, hospitals and road works were taken up. Hence, the TDP leaders should know the fact that there was no possibility for corruption of Rs 48,000 cr, the Finance Minister said