Audit Reports
Assam
Report of 2009 - Report of the C&AG of India on State Finances for the year ended 31 March 2009 Government of Assam
Overview
The State Government has done well in establishing an institutional mechanism on fiscal transparency as evident from the year-on-year presentation of the performance of the State during the FRBM Act regime in terms of key fiscal targets fixed for selected variables laid down in the Act. These outcome indicators tend to serve the limited purpose of measuring the performance against the targets. They do not, however, give the 'big picture' of the status of financial management including debt position and cash management etc, for the benefit of the State Legislature and other stakeholders. The Comptroller and Auditor General's civil audit reports step in to fill this gap. C&AGs reports have been commenting upon the Government's finances for over three years since the FRBM legislation and have published three reports already. Since these comments formed part of the civil audit report, it was felt that the audit findings on State finances remained camouflaged in the large body of audit findings on compliance and performance audits. The obvious fallout of this well-intentioned but all-inclusive reporting was that the financial management portion of these findings did not receive proper attention. In recognition of the need to bring State finances to center-stage once again, a stand-alone report on State Government finances is considered an appropriate audit response to this challenge. Accordingly, from the report year 2009 onwards, C&AG has decided to bring out a separate volume titled 'Report on State Finances'. Based on the audited accounts of the Government of Assam for the year ending March 2009, this report provides an analytical review of the Annual Accounts of the State Government. The report is structured in three Chapters.
Chapter I is based on the audit of Finance Accounts and makes an assessment of the Government's fiscal position as on 31 March 2009. It provides an insight into trends in committed expenditure, borrowing pattern besides a brief account of Central funds transferred directly to the State implementing agencies through off-budget route. Chapter-II is based on audit of Appropriation Accounts and it gives the grant-by grant description of appropriations and the manner in which the allocated resources were managed. Chapter III is an inventory of Government's compliance with various reporting requirements and financial rules.
Although the Assam Government has achieved the deficit targets, before the time lines prescribed in the Act, it has to initiate requisite corrective measures to contain the expenditure on salaries relative to its own resources, to achieve the corresponding FRBM targets within the time frame prescribed in the Act. The State has the reasonable prospect of achieving the targets set out in the FRBM Act provided an effort is made to increase tax compliance, reduce tax administration costs, make efforts to collect revenue arrears.