THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Finance Department’s attempts to streamline the plan fund utilisation mechanism seem to be paying off. The utilisation at the mid-point of the fiscal has turned out to be the strongest in the last six years. This does not mean that the utilisation has been encouragingly high. Though considerably better than previous years, it is just 20 percent. This is far less than the 30-35 percent utilisation considered healthy at this point. Of the total plan outlay of Rs 26,500 crore for 2017-18, over Rs 5360 crore has been utilised.
The average utilisation by the start of September during the last six years was just 13 percent; During 2013-14 and 2016-17 it was only 11 percent. At this point, 13 of the 39 departments have crossed 20 percent utilisation. Local bodies, too, have done considerably better this fiscal. The allocation for local self government institutions is Rs 6227.50 crore for this fiscal. The latest figures available show that 17 percent or Rs 1064 crore has been utilised. During the previous years, the utilisation at the end of August was less than 10 percent.
The work on implementing the plan schemes began right before the Budget was passed in the Assembly. The full Budget was passed only by May 18 but by then sanction was already issued for projects worth Rs 1500 crore-plus; most of which were included in the 'green book', a document that lists projects that are to be taken up on an urgent basis.
Further, this fiscal the Panchayat Plan Formulation Guidelines, traditionally brought out during June, was released on April 2. The local bodies, as a result, had the time to devise projects and get it approved by the District Planning Committee, a laborious time-consuming process. This time, virtually 100 percent of the local body plan was finalised before June 15. "When guidelines are put out late, local bodies struggle to get the necessary approvals even by November. No wonder, local bodies have always been the worst performers in terms of plan fund utilisation," a top Finance Department official said.
