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A Rajya Sabha subordinate from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) connected Thursday (April 2, 2026) flagged a important shortfall successful the cardinal government's transportation of cess collections to designated funds, citing a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) study that revealed lapses spanning 5 decades.
Parliament Budget Session highlights connected April 2, 2026
Raising the substance during Zero Hour, RJD MP A.D. Singh from Bihar said the CAG has recovered that arsenic of FY 2023-24, the authorities failed to transportation arsenic overmuch arsenic ₹3.69 lakh crore of cess collections to their intended funds — with the earliest lapses dating backmost to 1974.
Mr. Singh highlighted respective circumstantial instances. The Oil Industry Development Board, helium said, had ₹902.40 crore collected betwixt 1974-75 and 1991-92, with consequent shortfalls resulting successful a cumulative shortage of ₹2.95 crore up to FY 2023-24.
In the wellness and acquisition sector, ₹37,537 crore remained un-transferred betwixt 2018-19 and 2023-24.
The Investor Education and Protection Fund recorded a shortfall of ₹2,505.5 crore, portion the Monetisation of National Highways Fund showed a shortage of ₹5,968.1 crore.
The RJD MP besides pointed to what helium described arsenic a important discrepancy successful authoritative accounts. While the Finance Ministry claimed that ₹3.66 lakh crore had been transferred betwixt 2018-19 and 2023-24, authorities accounts reflected lone ₹2.65 lakh crore — a spread helium said necessitated urgent reconciliation.
"These persistent lapses undermine channelling cess funds to their intended improvement purposes," Mr. Singh said, adding that citizens deserved transparency and assurance that their cess contributions were being directed towards payment and improvement objectives.
Addressing his remarks to the Chair, Mr. Singh posed 2 pointed questions to the government: Why these cess collections were not transferred to their designated funds, and what contiguous corrective steps person been taken to forestall specified lapses from recurring.
