Thiruvananthapuram: A study conducted by the Planning Board has described supplementary demands for grants, a means by which government departments demand additional funds over and above the initial plan outlay, as “wanton deployment of scarce resources”. The study, “Deviation from Annual Plan – Supplementary Demands for Grants (SDG)”, found that in a number of cases the actual expenditure (initial plan outlay plus supplementary grants) is less than even the initial outlay. “This suggests that supplementary funds were demanded when funds for actual plan projects were left underutilized,” said the study, which was done as part of the State Planning Board Internship Programme.
While preparing annual plans, the study says that care has to be taken to ensure that the estimated outlay is as close to the actual expenditure. The study, which probed the period from 2008-09 to 2013-14, has lined up the following sectors under the “Very Poor” category: agriculture, dairy development, fisheries, rural development, land reforms, public health and sanitation, social welfare, irrigation and flood control, general education. These are sectors that had demanded substantial amount as supplementary grants when even the initial outlay is not utilized fully for at least two years.
In the “Poor” category there are mining, road transport, water transport, ecology and environment, civil supplies, cooperation, transport and communications and scientific research. These are sectors whose actual expenditure exceeds initial outlay but is less than the total plan outlay by 15 percent for at least two years. The SDG flowing into plan had shown a steady increase till 2009-10 when it formed nearly 60 percent of the total SDG that fiscal. But then the slide sets in and in 2012-13, it had slipped to a low of 15.84 percent.
